Sifting through the records of Biden and Trump shows some notable trends and developments.
At first glance, Biden blows away Trump in terms of job creation. During Biden’s tenure, payroll employment has grown by 15.8 million through September, compared to payrolls shrinking by 2.7 million on Trump’s watch. However, the job losses during the Trump era were largely temporary separations caused by pandemic disruptions.
On the measure of income growth, households did very well in the Trump years and then found themselves surprisingly flush during the pandemic. The stimulus-induced highs of the COVID-19 era waned under Biden, but the trend has otherwise been almost exactly the same as it was under Trump, even accounting for inflation.
For the stock market, the bottom line is that stocks performed better under Trump than they have under Biden, although markets did well during both presidencies. Overall, the S&P 500 was up 65% during Trump’s time in office. It was up 48% under Biden through early October.
Read more analysis of economic indicators during the Trump vs. Biden administrations.
