The U.S. economy has lost just over 2% percent of the payroll jobs it was generating at the end of the longest boom in American history, which was already weakening in the final months of the Clinton administration. But it lost 3.1% of payroll jobs during the Reagan downturn, which is generally conceded to have been the worst since the Depression. 

Most of the Bush job loss came in the months just after he took office, and especially in the wake of September 11, 2001 . The trend was almost flat starting in January, 2002, and turned upward in August.

It now seems likely that Bush will end his term with the economy employing fewer payroll workers than when he took office, according to most projections by private economists. If that happens, Bush's critics will be able to say correctly that he's the first since Hoover to have ended an entire term with a net job loss. But it's premature to say that now. Even Reagan’s bigger job loss was erased less than two years after growth resumed. And several private economists are projecting job gains in the next 12 months that would leave Bush with a net gain in jobs.