WASHINGTON -- The Reagan administration might look with satisfaction on its record of reducing unemployment and creating more than 18 million new jobs, but some analysts said Friday the country's jobless picture was not quite so rosy.
When Reagan was elected in 1980, unemployment was running at an annual rate of 7.1 percent. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the annual jobless rate for December 1988 had dropped to 5.3 percent, the lowest monthly rate since a 5.1 percent rate in May 1974.
Unemployment, which crept up to a Reagan administration high of 9.7 percent in 1983, has fallen steadily since.
In addition, the bureau, in its last unemployment report of the Reagan presidency, announced that 280,000 new jobs had been created in December, bringing the total for the year to 3.8 million jobs.
'The year-end employment report shows that existing economic policies have been as successful as any in our nation's history,' said Richard Rahn, chief economist of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
'The estimated 3.8 percent economic growth last year produced 3.8 million new jobs,' he said.
In September, Beryl Sprinkel, Reagan's chief economic adviser, announced that nearly 18 million new jobs had been created since November 1982, with strong employment gains across the economic and social spectrum.
Sprinkel said the nearly 18 million new jobs was more than twice the number of jobs created by America's major trading partners. He also said the unemployment decline was the largest percentage decline of any of the major trading partners.
The Reagan administration says the jobs have been 'good' -- with most of them paying $20,000 or more a year. More than 90 percent of the jobs were full-time.
But the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Washington research group, disputed the Reagan administration claim in a study, 'The State of Working America.'
'I don't think it's so beautiful,' said Jeff Faux, the president of the institute. 'The rate of growth of jobs has been lower in the '80s than in the '70s.'
Faux said a major reason for the drop in the unemployment rate was because there is a smaller labor force in the post-baby boom era.
Further he cited a gradual and steady erosion in personal income after inflation.
'We're working hard and in terms of our living standards we're earning less,' Faux said. 'It's certainly not a sign of health to have the hourly wages of Americans dropping.'
The institute's study found that average hourly wages, adjusted for inflation, dropped by 7 percent between 1979 and 1987. Hourly wages for men dropped 10 percent, while the real wages of their female counterparts dropped 1 percent. Only higher-paid salaried workers gained during the period, with a 3 percent increase in real wages since 1979.
The institute report said more than five million workers were holding part-time jobs while wanting full-time work, that 17 percent of all workers had no health insurance and 40 percent were not covered by a pension plan.
Annual, average unemployment rates: 1973 -- 4.9 percent 1974 -- 5.6 percent 1975 -- 8.5 percent 1976 -- 7.7 percent 1977 -- 7.1 percent 1978 -- 6.1 percent 1979 -- 5.8 percent 1980 -- 7.1 percent 1981 -- 7.6 percent 1982 -- 9.7 percent 1983 -- 9.6 percent 1984 -- 7.5 percent 1985 -- 7.2 percent 1986 -- 7.0 percent 1987 -- 6.2 percent
1988 -- 5.
