Fun with Labor Statistics

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics webpage, I compiled a quick guide to unemployment rates by presidency, using yearly averages. I used the inaugural year and the last full year (the last election year, regardless if first or second term).

 http://www.bls.gov/cps/prev_yrs.htm

                                                                  Change
HST-D     1949  3.9     1952   3.0                   -0.9
DDE-R    1953  2.9     1958   6.8                   +3.9
JFK-D     1961  6.7     1963   5.7                    -1.0
LBJ-D     1964  5.2     1968   3.3                    -1.9
RMN-R   1969  3.5     1973   4.7                   +1.5
GRF-R    1974 5.6      1976   7.9                   +2.3
                           1975 8.5
JEC-D      1977 7.1     1980   7.1                    No change
RWR-R    1981 7.6     1988   5.5                     -2.1
           1982 9.8  1983 9.6 1984 7.5
GHWB-R 1989 5.3    2000  7.5                     +2.2
WJC-D     1993 6.9    2000    4.0                    -2.9
GWB-R    2001 4.7    2008 5.5                      +0.8
BHO-D    2009 9.3     2012 8.2                      -1.1


One quick consideration can be given to the question of divided government. How many of the R's had at least one chamber of congress controlled by D's, and vice versa. Looks like the decline in the unemployment rate began while Reagan had a Republican Senate, and continued after the Democrats took the Senate majority.  Under Clinton, the 1990s economy improved as well under divided government, after the Republicans took the House for the first time in forty years.