Obama Recovery Versus Reagan Recovery

If you look at the Obama Recovery and the Reagan Recovery, the numbers don't even come close. Reagan had already, by the start of his third year, and after a worse recession, had helpt to alleviate unemployment. Twenty-seven months after the official end of that recession, unemployment had fallen to 7.5 percent from a peak of 10.8 percent. At the same point after the recent recession, unemployment had fallen not 3.3 percentage points, but only 1.4 percentage points. The reason is not hard to find. In the seven quarters following the ’81–’82 recession, GDP growth averaged 7.1 percent (on an annual basis). In the current post-recession span it has averaged only 2.8 percent. We need 2.5 percent growth just to absorb increases in the work force. The first quarter of 2011 had only a 1.8 percent increase in GDP. Is this true?