On the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, the Globe published its first data dashboard to track the economy and other measures of national health under the new president. We focused on issues Trump pledged to address, including jobs, taxes, trade, immigration, and health care.
As the president enters his fourth year in office, our latest scorecard shows a mixed record. Here’s a quick recap of the stats:
■ Jobs and wages: The economy has continued to expand, and growth in monthly payrolls has been strong enough to push the unemployment rate down to 3.5 percent, the lowest level since 1969, and push average hourly wages up 3.3 percent in the past 12 months, compared with 2.5 percent in the last year of the Obama administration. The U6 jobless rate dropped to 6.9 percent in November from 9.1 percent when Trump took over; that means there are fewer people who have given up looking for job or are stuck in part-time work.
■ Taxes: Trump delivered on his promise to cut taxes, with most of the benefits going to corporations and the wealthy. The $1.5 trillion price tag contributed to a widening US budget deficit, which is expected to hit $960 billion in the current fiscal year, up 44 percent from two years ago.
■ Trade: Trump imposed hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs on Chinese imports — which triggered retaliatory levies on US goods — before reaching a truce this month. The trade deficit stood at $520 billion this year through October, compared with $513 billion in the same period in 2018.
■ Health insurance: The number of people without coverage has begun to climb again as the GOP seeks to further weaken the Affordable Care Act.
■ Immigration: Deportations have increased 11 percent under Trump but remain well below the Obama-era peak.