PoliPundit writes:

We’re talking here about jobs.

Since January 2001, and despite the dot-com bust and 9/11, the economy went ahead and created the net sum total of five million nine hundred ten thousand jobs:

137.78 million - Total employment - Jan. 2001.
143.69 million - Total employment - April 2006.

* * *

Regarding established-company payroll jobs, the economy over the past 48 months posted net gains in the following sectors:

1,068,000 – Health Care.
791,000 – Construction.
341,000 – Finance & Insurance.
152,000 – Real Estate.
113,000 – Architecture & Engineering.

* * *

Regarding lower-tiered workers, i.e., non-managers in the services sectors and production-line workers in manufacturing:

$ 14.44 = Avg. hourly earnings - April 2001.
$ 14.82 = Avg. hourly earnings - April 2002.
$ 15.26 = Avg. hourly earnings - April 2003.
$ 15.58 = Avg. hourly earnings - April 2004.
$ 16.00 = Avg. hourly earnings - April 2005.
$ 16.61 = Avg. hourly earnings - April 2006.

That gain exceeds by a pretty fair margin the total consumer inflation rate throughout that period.

How does the economy compare to prior administrations you ask? PoliPundit gives us those numbers as well:

Speaking of the unemployment rate, here are some numbers you will *not* see tonight on the network news broadcasts, on CNN or MSNBC, or in tomorrow’s big-city papers:

April 1976 - 7.7%.
April 1986 - 7.1%.
April 1996 - 5.6%.
April 2006 - 4.7%.

So if you think the economy is doing bad, be thankful that its not the economy of prior administrations.