Romney's claim on female jobs loss: Missing context
(CNN) – Mitt Romney, eager to close the persistent gender gap opening up between himself and President Barack Obama, has begun using an eyebrow-raising statistic on the campaign trail.
"Did you know that of all the jobs lost during the Obama years, 92.3% are women? During the Obama years, women have suffered," Romney told a crowd Tuesday in Pennsylvania.
He made the claim again Wednesday in an interview on Fox News, saying "Over 92% of the jobs lost under this president were lost by women. His polices have been really a war on women."
An analysis of federal labor statistics shows that the claim is technically true but is missing important context.
The number of non-farm employed women from January 2009, when Obama took office, to March 2012 did fall far more than the number of employed men in that period. The total job loss for the period for both men and women combined was 740,000. The number of women who lost non-farm jobs in that timespan was 683,000, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That amounts to 92.3% - the figure Romney cites in his campaign talking point. However, the statistic does not reflect that men constituted a much larger chunk of the job loss pie in the year leading up to Obama’s inauguration.
In the 2008 calendar year, men lost a total of 2.7 million non-farm jobs, compared to 895,000 jobs lost for women. Men made up 75.4% of the 3.6 million jobs lost that year.
Romney’s claim also does not reflect that job loss for women began in March 2008, almost a full year before Obama took office. At that point, women held a total of 67.3 million non-farm payroll jobs, the highest level of female employment of the Bush administration. From that high point, the number of women with non-farm payroll jobs fell for 23 consecutive months, spanning from the final 10 months of the Bush administration and first 13 months of the Obama administration. Since February 2010, women have actually gained 863,000 jobs.
CNN Political Research Director Robert Yoon contributed to this report.
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Where did he pull numbers like that from?
@annies
I am also a businesswoman and live in Boston, MA.
The year he left office (2007), the trend in Massachusetts' unemployment rate was 12th in the nation a big improvement from the 50th place it was in the year he won office. Also, MA is a tiny state that is 85% Dem. and it was 47th in job creation because three out of the four years Romney was Gov. the state was at a level considered to be "FULL EMPLOYMENT". How do you add jobs when your state is considered to be at a "FULL EMPLOYMENT" level?
good grief....does this man know any facts, Y does media let him get away with sssoooooooooo many lies.....I'll bet Mitts does not even know where he stands on any given issue he has flipped so much.....maybe he just does not really care.............where is his advisers don't they inform him on any facts......he just spouts any ol thing he wants and some folks will bellive it..........
OBAMA 2012 for forward moving folks the rest stay where U R
So, in other words, Mitt Romney's statement is completely true? Got it. Thanks.
Romney is just another GOP/Tea Party political hack who suffers from "Palin foot in the mouth" disease. Bachmann, Cain, and Santorum all suffered a bad case of the disease...saying ridiculous and outrageous things that are false. Ignoring the facts to make a point is not going to make a good impression on voters.
Throwing stone from glass house
G.W.Bush cause this recession many women lost their Jobs (always recession first hurt the women)
Obama care creating jobs for women now Romeny want to repeal Obama care
So republicans better avoid talking about women
Ever listen to the DNC chair? "Congresswoman Shultz has also been criticized for what has been termed her "frequent absences" from Congress. In 2011 she missed 62 votes of Congress, placing her 45th of 535 in missing Congressional votes."
I can keep spinning on useless ways to skew data all day long. Seems Romney has a good point with real facts. Seems CNN is skewing the data. again......
@just say no to flipper
Okay..so you say! So are you working at one of those cool very ready "shovel ready" jobs? Oh wait...they didn't exist! Who is the liar! Huh?
So right wingnuts are now admitting that the Obama budgets did not add $6 trillion to the debt? In his last budget, W was over $1.37 trillion, and our president's last deficit was $977 billion. That is $400 billion less than W, right? We are moving in the right direction with no help from the GOP.
3.6 million lost jobs in 08 alone, that's outrageous, and he wants to take us back to the trickle down policies initiated by Reagan, Bush 1 & 2. These are the very same policies that got us in this mess of a near depression and high unemployment.
Then he wants to take the stats out of context to attack the Prez. He lies every time his lips move.
lol...CNN showing their true colors once again.....asking for context on a candidate's statement? Why don't you ask for context from President Failure once? Obama lies through his teeth every single day and no one ever asks for "context". And democrat voters, who truly put the "dumb" in dumbocrat, lap up every word of President Pinocchio's fables.
Do in other words, Republicans are worse for job losses by men and Democrats are worse for job losses by women?
They say timing is everything.
Dave give it a rest stop grasping for untruths........some of you will come up with anything to try to make Obama look bad............but then again you are true to your party....b/c they do the same thing
OBama 2012 to keep moving forward, if you don't want to be on the train stand back and wait til 2020
Julie, you are a liar. The numbers are clear and verified. You are so enamoured with the black man and his abdominals that you can't see the stain he has made.
Can you imagine Mittens as president taking out bin Laden? Seal Team 6 is on the ground in Pakistan and asks is it a go? Mittens says, "We'll get back to you."
"I am also a businesswoman and live in Boston, MA." –
Business woman? Then you should know that just because 95% (considered full employment) are employed, that has nothing to do with further job growth which is determined by demand. If the economy is growing and there is a demand for labor, labor WILL come into the market either from relocation or through education/training. Job growth is the increase in number of jobs, not increase in employment percentage.
Funny how devoutly religious people grant themselves a waiver regarding honesty during political debates. Romney, and Karl Rove his low-life handler, are perfectly aware of the deception in this statement and many, many of the things Romney uses for talking points. I personally know one of the guys who conceived the infamous and shameful "swift boat" lies against John Kerry – an actual war hero. When questioned about the morality of the lies the person told me "God favors Republicans and forgives anything done to prevent a Democrat from getting elected". He was serious and considers himself a true patriot and devout Christian.
I have an idea.............Lets ALL come back here to this POST in NOVEMBER 7th and lets see who was WIns and we can talk, cry and complain.............sorry romney folks but YOU will be crying\
Obama 2012 to continue to move forward, the rest of you can wait til 2016 NO WAIT HILLARY has to do her 8 years
I'm amazed how "Free Market" people blame everything on the President. You never specify what policies caused someone to lose their job. You blame the President for higher gas prices, when the facts show it's the market. You blame the President for unemployment, but never give credit for employment. You also believe in the three branches of government, but never blame the other two. I understand why the republican party is anti-education, you want parrots. To be a republican only takes one qualification - you must not have a functioning brain.
I'm ashame that Mitt would take something out of context.
"I am also a businesswoman and live in Boston, MA."
Business woman? Then you should know that job growth depends on economic growth and demand fro labor, NOT on employment percentage. If there is demand, labor will come either from relocation or through education/training, and that is counted as job growth – the increase in the number of jobs available.
@ No More Hope And Change Obama –
Coming from yet another woman in Massachusetts, I didn't get fooled the first time. Saw right through the smokescreen. Savvy politician, great campaigner, but woefully unprepared for the job at hand.
Good try Mitt, but it won't work! You pandered to your base and completed kicked women to the curb and now trying to pull an Etch-A-Sketch! You can forget about it, we already know what you are up too and not even Ann will be able to help you out of this one!
Women don't care right now about jobs, most women right now are happy saying good-bye to the Bush tax cuts so I say to Obama go for it, do it, he's the boss right now and which ever small business is impacted by it then use the option to fire 1 or 2 employees to make up for the tax break that will be lost. I don't see the problem for small businesses adapting to the loss of Bush's tax break, all the owner has to do is cut down on expenses starting with payroll, healthcare plan, overtime, etc.... Women were unhappy with Bush and they will be with Romney because of the abortion, birth control. If women's situation with jobs doesn't get better it really doesn't matter to women as long as free birth control and free abortion has been achieved by the Feminist movement.
@ Thor ..........I'm a liar exactly were did I lie.............enamoured with a black man in the WH........OR R U so blinded BY HATE you an't see the stain you have on your person.........don't hate Thor.........the numbers R clear and verified by whom U..........take a hike Thor..................chump callin me a liar