Final New Jobs Report for 2004

The Labor Department reported 157,000 new jobs in December and adjusted November's new job figure upwards by 34,000.

During the presidential campaign a year ago, the Bush administration was widely criticized for predicting 2.6 million new jobs this year. Although critics were correct in their opinion that the administration was overly optimistic, the Bush team was not as far off as many predicted. In total, 2,231,000 new jobs were created in 2004, or 86% of the figure forecasted by the administration.

Rewind to this February, when John Kerry was issuing daily negative attacks on the president:

"Now George Bush is saying he's going to create 2.6 million jobs this year alone — and his advisers are saying, 'What, you didn't actually believe that, did you?' Apparently George Bush is the only person left in the country who actually believes the far-fetched promises he's peddling."

Well John, it's too bad you were so bearish on America, and such a cowardly critic of President Bush during the campaign, otherwise maybe it would be your administration making the forecast for 2005.