( CNN ) -- Anyone watching the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night heard the number 4.5 million several times . `` Despite incredible odds and united Republican opposition , our president took action , and now we 've seen 4.5 million new jobs , '' San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro , the party 's keynote speaker , said . Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel , who served as President Barack Obama 's chief of staff , and Massachusetts Gov . Deval Patrick , who followed Obama 's November rival Mitt Romney as governor of Massachusetts , both cited the same number . Sights and sounds from the DNC . It 's a big-sounding number , given the still-sputtering job market . So we 're giving it a close eyeballing . The facts : . The number Castro cites is an accurate description of the growth of private-sector jobs since January 2010 , when the long , steep slide in employment finally hit bottom . But while a total of 4.5 million jobs sounds great , it 's not the whole picture . Nonfarm private payrolls hit a post-recession low of 106.8 million that month , according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics . The figure currently stands at 111.3 million as of July . While that is indeed a gain of 4.5 million , it 's only a net gain of 300,000 over the course of the Obama administration to date . The private jobs figure stood at 111 million in January 2009 , the month Obama took office . And total nonfarm payrolls , including government workers , are down from 133.6 million workers at the beginning of 2009 to 133.2 million in July 2012 . There 's been a net loss of nearly 1 million public-sector jobs since Obama took office , despite a surge in temporary hiring for the 2010 census . Meanwhile , the jobs that have come back are n't the same ones that were lost . Are you better off ? According to a study released last week by the liberal-leaning National Employment Law Project , low-wage fields such as retail sales and food service are adding jobs nearly three times as fast as higher-paid occupations . Conclusion : . The figure of 4.5 million jobs is accurate if you look at the most favorable period and category for the administration . But overall , there are still fewer people working now than when Obama took office at the height of the recession . Full coverage of the Democratic National Convention . First lady seeks to reignite flame for the president . CNN 's Matt Smith and Lindsey Knight contributed to this report .
Several speakers credited Barack Obama with an improved jobs picture . The 4.5 million figure is based on private-sector jobs added since 2010 . But the U.S. economy is still down 400,000 jobs over Obama 's tenure .