1. Employment Is Still Deeply Depressed
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Obama's defense of the economy rests on his claim that it has created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, and 800,000 so far this year. That's true, but selective. The "last 27 months" dates the count to March of 2010—the month employment bottomed out—making the gain look larger than if you picked another starting point. Since the beginning of 2008, for example, the economy has lost more than 5 million jobs. If the economy had been growing at a normal rate, an additional 6 or 7 million people might be working today.
