US presidents face a key contradiction once they assume office. They must pay lip service to the free-market creed that "government does not create jobs" even as they desperately seeking to claim credit for all job creation under their watch.The truth of the matter is, however, that so much depends on what happens before they come into the White House. President Barack Obama, for example, came into power at the height of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. On the one hand that meant he faced a nightmare scenario of someone else's creation. On the other, of course, he can claim success in having brought the jobless rate down from a recession peak of 10% down to below 5%.What does that mean for President Donald Trump? Well, a handy chart of how US unemployment has performed under presidents dating back to Theodore Roosevelt — courtesy of Deutsche Bank chief economist Joseph Lavorgna — gives us a clue.
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How unemployment fared under US presidents in history, in one chart
So much depends on what happens before a President comes into office.
President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence talk with factory workers during a visit to the Carrier factory, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Indianapolis, Ind.
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