Lyndon B. Johnson Performance on Stock Market, GDP and Jobs Created

Last updated: December 7th, 2023

Lyndon B. Johnson was president from 1963 to 1969. He was Senate majority leader and Vice President under John F. Kennedy. He took office after the assassination of JFK in 1963 and was re-elected for another term in 1964. He escalated the war in Vietnam, supported greater racial equality in the US, and oversaw the Great Society legislation as part of his “War on Poverty.”

Johnson’s economic policies focused mostly on implementing the principles of modern liberalism to address poverty and create greater economic equality. His Great Society reforms created several major social welfare programs to lift people out of poverty.

Summary of Lyndon B. Johnson’s performance

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

Indicator	Cumulative Gain/Loss
NASDAQ	N/A
DOW	27.69%
S&P	42.46%
Job Growth	21.28%
GDP Growth	30.46%

Key Policies

Johnson cut taxes on top income earning households and corporations. Also, established 11 major welfare programs, cutting poverty from 17.3% to 11.1% from 1964-1973

Key Events

Civil Rights Act Signed (July 1964)
Economic Opportunity Act (Aug 1964)
Tet Offensive in South Vietnam (Jan 1968)

Lyndon B. Johnson's stock market performance

Under Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, the S&P 500 gained 42.46%, the NASDAQ gained N/A and the Dow Jones gained 27.69%. Annualized, the S&P 500 gained 7.10%, the NASDAQ gained N/A and the Dow Jones gained 4.85%

Here is Lyndon B. Johnson’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	17.08%	27.69%
S&P	27.97%	42.46%

Stock Performance Chart

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Johnson GDP growth performance

During Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, the GDP gained 30.46%. That translates annually as GDP gained 5.33%.

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

Indicator	Cumulative End of Term 1	Cumulative End of Term 2
GDP Growth	22.38%	30.46%

GDP Performance Chart

Johnson jobs growth performance

During Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, payrolls grew 21.28% cumulatively. That translated to an annualized jobs groth of 3.84%.

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

Indicator	Cumulative End of Term 1	Cumulative End of Term 2
Job Growth	16.50%	21.28%

Job Growth Performance Chart

How we calculate President Johnson'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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