Unemployment under Presidents

During the last election,Allan Lichtman said that if a President' unemployment was less than when he came in he'd be re-elected. That's what happened.

I decided to look at where the Presidents left office. I forgot JFK,Ford and Carter,and George H.W. Bush but here are the results.

Truman--2.9% * wonder whether minorities were counted.
Eisenhower--6.6%.
LBJ--3.4% * again I wonder about minorities.
Nixon--5.5%
Reagan--5.4%
Clinton--4.2%
George W. Bush--7.8%
Barack Obama--6.1% and counting

In High School, an old economics professor told me that an economy working at the highest efficiency could only sustain 5% unemployment--otherwise unemployment would have to increase. That is why the figures of Truman and LBJ are so stunning and why I keep saying that President Obama will erode the unemployment rate to about 5.4% or less before he leaves office.

In the last labor report, the April figure was re-adjusted to 300,000 and I expect the same will happen for the June figures when the July numbers come out. Psychologically, it would be good for President Obama if the numbers drop below 6% before the election. So far,he has not been responsible for any economic downturn unlike Reagan,Nixon and George W. Bush.