Dwight D. Eisenhower Performance on Stock Market, GDP and Jobs Created

Last updated: April 25th, 2024

Dwight D. Eisenhower was president from 1953 to 1961. He was the Supreme Allied Commander during the invasion of Nazi-held Europe in World War II. As president, he kept marginal tax rates high while restraining federal spending to balance the budget.

Eisenhower cut defense spending from $515 billion in fiscal year 1953 to $370 billion by fiscal 1956. The economy grew under Eisenhower, at 2.2% per year rate. However, there were three recessions while Eisenhower was president.

Summary of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s performance

Below is a table summarizing Dwight D. Eisenhower's cumulative and annualized performance across all the metrics we track. These are for the entirety of Dwight D. Eisenhower's term.

Indicator	Cumulative Gain/Loss
NASDAQ	N/A
DOW	N/A
S&P	N/A
Job Growth	7.06%
GDP Growth	N/A

Key Policies

All price and wage controls lifted (Mar 1953)
Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare created (April 1953)
Social Security expanded to 10 million more Americans (Sept 1953)

Key Events

Supreme Court ends racial segregation in public schools (May 1954)
Soviets launch Sputnik (Oct 1957)

Dwight D. Eisenhower's stock market performance

Under Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency, the S&P 500 gained N/A, the NASDAQ gained N/A and the Dow Jones gained N/A. Annualized, the S&P 500 gained N/A, the NASDAQ gained N/A and the Dow Jones gained N/A

Here is Dwight D. Eisenhower’s cumulative stock market performance broken out by term.

Indicator	Cumulative End of Term 1	Cumulative End of Term 2
NASDAQ	N/A	N/A
DOW	N/A	N/A
S&P	N/A	N/A

Stock Performance Chart

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Eisenhower GDP growth performance

During Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency, the GDP gained N/A. That translates annually as GDP gained N/A.

Here is Eisenhower’s cumulative GDP growth performance broken out by term.

Indicator	Cumulative End of Term 1	Cumulative End of Term 2
GDP Growth	N/A	N/A

GDP Performance Chart

Eisenhower jobs growth performance

During Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency, payrolls grew 7.06% cumulatively. That translated to an annualized jobs groth of 0.86%.

Here is Eisenhower’s cumulative job growth performance broken out by term.

Indicator	Cumulative End of Term 1	Cumulative End of Term 2
Job Growth	5.47%	7.06%

Job Growth Performance Chart

How we calculate President Eisenhower's data for Facts First?

We capture the data as soon as it’s available to us – stock market data after daily market close, jobs data once a month and GDP data once a quarter. After verifying the raw data, we then calculate updated cumulative and annualized performance data for the current president (the data for previous presidents have been calculated and verified in advance).

Some metrics are measured daily (like stock market performance), monthly (like jobs growth) and quarterly (like GDP growth). We start measurement of performance for a president from the first full time period after their inauguration. For stock market performance, it is the first stock market day in office. For jobs growth, it’s either first full calendar month in office (so if you are inaugurated in the middle of January, the first full month is February). This ensures a consistent starting point across all presidencies.

Also, read these articles in our Learning Center:

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