I think these charts do not tell the whole story. I do not claim that Obama did a great job on the economy, but I think he did a decent job on it. Some of the charts show declines that were not Obama's fault. The following positive points, which I adapted from an online article, should be kept in mind when judging Obama's economic record:
The U.S. economy was shrinking when Obama took office in the first quarter of 2009. By the end of his presidency, the economy was growing at about 2 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. In fact, Obama’s second-term economic growth per person was higher than the growth of several previous presidents, specifically President George W. Bush in both his terms, President George H.W. Bush in his term, Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in their combined term, President Nixon in his first term, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his second term.
Job growth logged its longest winning streak in the modern era under Obama. The economy lost close to 800,000 jobs in January 2009, when Obama took office. The job market started to expand by early 2010. And it consistently added jobs from October 2010 to January 2017, when Obama left office; it continued to do so during the first months of President Trump’s term. There has not been a consistent job market expansion on record, dating back to 1939, that lasted longer than Obama's expansion.
The share of people working expanded as the economy added new jobs. That is, job growth was faster than population growth—a key measure of a healthy job market expansion. When Obama took office in January 2009, 77 percent of people between ages 25 and 54 had a job. This share dropped to 74.8 percent in the aftermath of the Great Recession by December 2009, before climbing to 78.2 percent in January 2017, when President Obama left office.
Wages and incomes rose under Obama. The typical weekly pay of U.S. workers began increasing in early 2013 and reached its highest level on record up that time, dating back to 1979, at the end of 2016. Household incomes, while still relatively low, also experienced an upward trend since 2014.
Household debt levels fellas employment opportunities and wages went up. Household debt fell relative to after-tax income during both of Obama’s terms. Total debt amounted to 105.9 percent of after-tax income, the lowest level since mid-2002. The massive and rapidly rising household indebtedness that characterized the years before the economic and financial crisis of 2007 to 2009 are behind us.
Government finances improved during the Obama years. The deficit rose to 9.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal year 2009. By FY 2016, the deficit had fallen to less than one-third of that, at 3.2 percent of GDP.
