On the August 31 edition of FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, aired live from the Republican National Convention, co-host Sean Hannity presented misleading figures on the jobs created since George W. Bush became president. Once again, Hannity then falsely linked the 2001 recession to the Clinton administration, saying that Bush “gave us a million and a half new jobs, got us out of the Clinton-Gore recession.”

Though 1.5 million jobs have been added in the last year, overall job loss has occurred during the Bush administration. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' most recent figures, 1.8 million private sector jobs have been lost since Bush took office in January 2001. In an August 30 article, the Los Angeles Times noted (even citing the net job loss figure of 1.1 million, which includes an increase in government employment): “Bush stands to become the first post-Depression president to end his term with a net job loss.”

As Media Matters for America has documented, Hannity's claim that Bush “got us out of the Clinton-Gore recession” is false. The American economy went into a recession, for the first time in ten years, in March 2001 -- after Bush became president; this is according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private, nonpartisan organization whose business cycle announcements have long been considered the definitive word on recessions.