Don't forget, people with their own business are NOT counted in the national
pay roll survey.  They add their numbers (Self employed) to the list of
people not on the national pay roll, making it seem like more unemployed
people.

http://nationalreview.com/nrof_comment/carter200402260852.asp
Nine months prior to the 1996 presidential election, Bill Clinton's Council
of Economic Advisers cheerfully reported that the "American economy has
performed exceptionally well over the past 3 years." While that may not
surprise you, you may however be surprised to learn that President George W.
Bush's economic record is, in many ways, better than the record Clinton ran
on for reelection.

Compared with the "exceptional" years of 1993, 1994, and 1995, the first
three years of George W. Bush's presidency featured:



lower inflation
lower unemployment
faster productivity growth
faster labor compensation growth (i.e., wages and benefits)
29.4 percent ($6.9 trillion) more economic output
45 percent ($960 billion) more exports; and
an economic growth rate 81.2 percent as fast as that under Clinton

Considering the circumstances under which the U.S. economy has labored for
the past few years, President Bush's record is all the more impressive. When
George W. Bush moved into the White House, the economy was on the verge of
recession. The largest stock market bubble in U.S. history had recently
burst, exports were declining, manufacturing employment had been falling for
half a year, and people were finding it harder and harder to find work. And
that was before 9/11, the war on terror, and the revelations of the
corporate-governance scandals that grew out of the late 1990s.

The tax cuts President Bush signed into law helped alleviate the impact of
these economic shocks and kept millions of Americans working who would have
otherwise lost their jobs. Consequently, the unemployment rate peaked in
June 2003 at 6.3 percent, compared with peaks of 7.8 percent and 10.8
percent during the previous two recessions.

With the U.S. economy on the upswing, President Bush's critics are finding
it increasingly difficult to disparage his economic record. But that won't
stop them. Fortunately, as Aldous Huxley observed, "Facts do not cease to
exist because they are ignored." So what are the facts?

Most private-sector forecasters expect the U.S. economy will grow faster
this year (on an average annual basis) than in any year since 1984.

For the third consecutive year, the U.S. economy is poised to grow faster
than most other industrialized economies. France, Germany, and Japan, for
instance, are not expected to grow even half as fast as the United States.

Since the Bush administration began, non-farm productivity has increased at
a 4.1 percent annual rate ? the fastest pace for the start of any presidency
since Harry S. Truman occupied the White House.

The U.S. remains the world's largest exporter. In fact, during the first
three years of the Bush administration, the U.S. exported more in real terms
than it did during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford
administrations combined.

More single-family homes were sold in 2003 than in any other year on record.
And the homeownership rate is at a record-high of 68.5 percent ? a full
percentage point higher than during the fourth quarter of 2000.

At 5.6 percent, the national unemployment rate is now lower than the average
unemployment rate of the 1970s, 1980s, and the 1990s.

According to the Labor Department's household survey ? the survey used to
calculate the monthly unemployment rate ? more Americans are working now
than ever before. The payroll survey is also showing improvement: 112,000
new jobs were created in January and 366,000 jobs have been added over the
last five months.

While President Bush's economic record is arguably better than the record
Bill Clinton ran on in 1996, this truth is frequently obscured by
unrelenting partisan criticism based more on fancy than fact. But the fact
remains that the United States boasts the world's largest and most vibrant
economy. It will stay that way so long as we are guided by a trust in what
President Bush calls "the power and possibilities of freedom."