With the US presidential election just 4 months away, focus on tier 1 economic data will become acute, as will headlines blasting top-line data without much, if any, underlying "between the lines" analysis. Which is why we have decided to put together a template of key data series that in our opinion best capture the dramatic shift in the labor composition of the US welfare state under the Obama administration, starting with January 2009. Here are the facts:

And that, in a nutshell, is how the economy has performed over the past 42 months.

Visually:

Which, however, is not to say that in addition to millions on foodstamps and disability, and just over a million part-time workers added, the US has little to show for the last three and a half years: as the chart below shows, over the same time period Total Public Debt to GDP has risen from 76.7% to 101.7%, a 25% increase in absolute terms.