The administration claimed to have improved United States economic performance. Gross Domestic Product began to significantly increase in late 1993, and new jobs were generated. But most voters did not give Clinton credit for the economic upturn because it did not alleviate the general perception that any improvements were, at best, only temporary. In 1994, the Democrats lost control of Congress because the first Democratic administration in twelve years failed to lower popular anxieties concerning the future. Everyone knew that the new jobs were lousy and that even in the midst of " recovery," thousands of good jobs were being eliminated every week by technological changes, mergers, acquisitions, and plant closings.