Do Election Years Spur Industry Growth? Unemployment Rate U.S. Presidential Terms (1997 to 2016)

July 1, 2016  by in General   

This is the fourth factoid in a series of five factoids exploring the possible connection between election years and a healthy economy. Looking back over the past 20 years and the elections those years encompassed yields interesting results. With the exception of the Great Recession in 2008, a possible heightened sense of confidence and hope for the future during election years may partly be responsible for higher furniture sales growth, consumer confidence, gross domestic product and lower unemployment rates.

Like the highs in Consumer Confidence, the Unemployment Rate was at its lowest during the Bill Clinton years. The Great Recession caused the unemployment rate to skyrocket near 10 percent, but by the election year of 2012, the rate has decreased to 8.1 percent and continues to fall almost a percentage point each year. Currently at 4.9, the Unemployment Rate looks to be continuing the trend of other election years with the lowest unemployment of the presidential term. 

While the majority of election years in recent times have ended on a positive economic note for the furniture industry, did the momentum carry over to the first year of a president’s new term? The final factoid of this series will compare election years to the 1^st year of a president’s term.

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Labor Statistics