The following rankings represent average monthly unemployment as reported in the BLS database, using November of the year elected through the October of the election year defeated or concluding service. As per usual, I do not count Truman's service in wartime, just his term from 1948 to 1952. Overall Republican performance is slightly worse than Democrat, 5.88 v. 5.75 percent.
The irony of this list is that Democrats head it and end it, with unemployment under Obama (46 months) more than twice as bad as under Truman, who 60 years ago posted what was to be the best unemployment record of any president since.
Truman 4.44 percent
IKE 4.82
JFK/LBJ 4.91
Bush The Younger 5.21
Clinton 5.28
Nixon/Ford 5.75
Bush The Elder 6.22
Carter 6.55
Reagan 7.58
Obama 9.00
