(The more telling number is the difference between November 2005 and today, because this really is the Pelosi-Ried economy, but we Americans are too stupid to think that way.)
(But since this month is all about Obama, as every month is, the number was 144 million in 2008, and 139 today. Five million (mostly middle-class) families losing a bread-winner during Obama's watch. Team Romney, pick up this number!!!!)
The important number that we need to keep in the forefront is how many people were working on Jan 19, 2008, and how many are on payrolls today.
And what was your Goal ?
In either case—stimulus or no stimulus—the unemployment rate was supposed to be down to 5.5% by now.
Mitt/Ryan are numbers guys. They will use this , and some hard analysis to show how they are “ cooking the books”