President Obama in February 2009 after a brutal jobs report, the first issued during his administration.

On a Friday morning in February 2009, the Labor Department issued its standard monthly readout on the state of the United States labor market. It was the first of 96 jobs reports to be issued during the Obama presidency, and it was a catastrophe.

“With Grim Job Loss Figures, No Sign That Worst Is Over” was the print headline for The New York Times. “598,000 Jobs Shed in Brutal January,” said The Washington Post.

There was considerably less hand-wringing upon the release of the final jobs report of the Obama years on Friday, and for good reason. The nation added 156,000 jobs in December, and the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent, not the 7.9 percent reached eight years ago.

To be precise, that report from February 2009 covered the period shortly before President Obama took office, and the state of the economy in the final days of his administration will be captured by numbers released early next month. But we’re close enough to the end of the Obama era that it’s hard to imagine any radical shifts in those numbers.

Granted, presidents have limited ability to shape the economy. Congress controls the power to tax and spend, and the Federal Reserve sets monetary policy. A president has only subtle ways of influencing either. Luck plays a big part in economic results, too; Bill Clinton didn’t invent the internet, but its advent helped drive a jobs boom during his presidency.

Still, with moving vans starting to pull up to the White House gates, it’s a fine time to look at how President Obama’s jobs record stacks up against his predecessors. The short answer: The Obama years have been a gloomier period for American workers than the those of Ronald Reagan or Mr. Clinton. But Mr. Obama’s record looks much better if you make adjustment for the fact that he took office in the middle of an economic free fall, or if you compare him with either President Bush.