evidence: Donald Trump is the first president in almost a century to see employment decline nationally between his first and last days in office. Experts widely agree that the president during the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover, also saw jobs lost on his watch, and earlier presidents who served before standardized employment data was collected likely did, too. Economists say the coronavirus pandemic — the primary reason for the employment decline under Trump — was so unusual that it merits an asterisk to his record.