What does the economy sound like to you?

By Jessica Hullman, Northwestern University Published: Yesterday

Additional credits: This article was inspired by labor economist Aaron Sojourner's twitter feed, specifically a chart.

Our 45th president has a lot to say about economic statistics. Just a few weeks ago, for instance:

Image source: The WEB

Or back in September of last year, after 9 months in office:

Our economy is soooo good, perhaps the best in our country's history

Surely you've noticed that it's soooo good?

We've also heard a lot of

jobs, jobs, jobs (Dec 1 2016, Mar 6 2017, Mar 14 2017, Mar 28 2017, Apr 5 2017, May 5 2017, May 27 2017, Jun 13 2017, Jul 12 2017, Jul 25 2017, Dec 20 2017, Jan 24 2018, Feb 9 2018, Feb 19 2018, Mar 1 2018, Mar 9 2018, Jul 6 2018, Jul 27 2018, Nov 2 2018, Feb 1 2019)

In fact, Trump has had things to say about the economy long before he started threatening to run for president. Back on 2012, for example, as the economy was just reaching a point of recovery after the 2008 recession:

Not a real recovery, phony numbers. (Sept 7, 2012)

This was followed by the particularly eloquent statement:

We can rev up this economy like it should be, not with false numbers (Aug 18, 2013)

He continues:

Totally phony number. (May 31, 2014)

Nobody has jobs ... it's not a real economy. It is a phony set of numbers. (Oct 11, 2015)

And just before he was elected to office:

The terrible jobs report that just came out - phony numbers (Nov 4, 2016)

If you knew nothing of the employment situation in the U.S., and had only these comments to go on, what sort of trend would you expect to see?

Below, you can draw your guess for the number of jobs in the U.S., in millions, from 2009 when Obama took office to early 2019. If you think the number of jobs has held steady, draw a flat line. If you think employment has increased, then draw a line curving upwards. If you think employment has been doing down, draw a line curving downwards. When you're done, you'll see the nation's current best estimates of employment in the country over the last 10 years, the total non-farm employment payroll figures from the Burea of Labor Statistics.

The jobs estimate on the day that Trump took office is provided for you.

What does employment before and after Trump sound like to you?