Bill Clinton’s claim that since 1989, Democratic presidents have created 50 times more jobs than Republican presidents is true

On Aug. 21, former President Bill Clinton shared some seemingly implausible statistics about job creation in the United States. He claimed during his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, that since 1989, 50 times more new jobs were created under Democratic presidents than under Republican presidents.

“You’re going to have a hard time believing this, but so help me, I triple-checked it,” Clinton said. “Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, America has created about 51 million new jobs. I swear I checked this three times, even I couldn’t believe it. What’s the score? Democrats 50, Republicans 1.”

Clinton was implying that 50 million jobs were added under Democratic presidents while only 1 million were added under Republican presidents.

Multiple people on social media suggested that Clinton’s claim was correct. Here’s what we can VERIFY.

THE QUESTION

Is it true that since 1989, Democratic presidents have created 50 million jobs while Republican presidents have created just 1 million jobs, like Bill Clinton claimed?

THE SOURCES

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics  
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

THE ANSWER

Yes, since 1989, Democratic presidents have created 50 million jobs while Republican presidents have created just 1 million jobs, like Bill Clinton claimed. 

WHAT WE FOUND

Former President Bill Clinton’s claim that America has created 50 times more jobs under Democratic presidents than Republicans since the end of the Cold War in 1989 is true.

The number of jobs created in the U.S. from January 1989 to July 2024 was 51.6 million nonfarm jobs, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data.

Around 1.3 million of those jobs were created under Republican presidents — George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, and about 50.3 million jobs were created under Democratic presidents — Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

While Clinton’s claim is accurate, it also leaves out certain factors that are outside of a president’s control. For example, there were significant job losses reported during the Great Recession when George W. Bush was in office and in the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic the last year of Trump’s presidency.