Recently, Governor John Kasich claimed credit for creating more than 120,000 jobs in Ohio since taking office in January 2011.  Kasich told the Republican Convention last month that putting the state’s budget back in balance without accounting gimmicks or tax hikes encouraged investment in the state.  Barack Obama wasn’t about to let Kasich take all the credit for that, however:

“John Kasich stood up there and told everybody that Ohio is now number one in the Midwest in job creation, fourth best in America — which got folks kind of confused, because if it’s all Obama’s fault and nothing is going right, what’s going on in Ohio?” the president asked a crowd at a Labor Day rally in Toledo. “Now, I guess the theory was that it’s all the Governor’s doing. But I think we need to refresh his memory — because a lot of those jobs are autoworker jobs like yours.”

Really?  How many autoworker jobs has Ohio gained in since January 2011?  The BLS data for auto manufacturing and auto-parts manufacturing, screen-grabbed below, should give us a pretty good idea.  In January 2011, Ohio had 19,200 auto manufacturing jobs; as of July (the latest data), there are 17,800, for a decrease of 1400 jobs.  In auto parts manufacturing, Ohio had 56,000 jobs in January 2011, and only 54,200 now, for another decrease of 1800 jobs — a grand total of a net loss of 3200 jobs in this sector.

Well, maybe Obama meant throughout his presidency.  The numbers there are almost as bad.  In the first full month of the Obama term in February 2009, Ohio had 59,000 auto parts manufacturing jobs and 19,400 auto manufacturing jobs.  Those dropped to 50,900 and 14,200 in June 2009 at the start of the recovery, and bounced back up to the present level as noted above.  It’s still a net decrease over Obama’s tenure of 6400 jobs in this sector.

Clearly, the jobs growth took place elsewhere in Ohio.  Kasich doesn’t need his recollection refreshed.  Obama needs a refresher course in math.

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