Below are stats for every month of the past decade or so of unemployment, labour force participation rate and labour force.
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11000000
Obama:
During Obama's term, unemployment went from 7.8 (Jan 2009) to 4.8 (Jan 2017).
During Obama's term, LFPR went from 65.7 (Jan 2009) to 62.9 (Jan 2017)
During Obama's term labour force went from 154.2m (Jan 2009) to 159.7m (Jan 2017)
Labour force in 2009 = 65.7% of
154.2m = 101.3m
Labour force in 2017 = 62.9% of
159.7m = 100.45m
Loss of total labour force between 2009 and 2017 = 0.9m
Unemployment dropped 3%, 3% of original labour force (154.2) = 4.6m
Net gain of jobs = 4.6 - 0.9 = 3.7m, 3.7 / 154.2 = 2.4%. 2.4% real job growth over 8 years
Trump:
During Trump's term, unemployment went from 4.8 (Jan 2017) to 4.1 (Dec 2017).
During Trump's term, LFPR went from 62.9 (Jan 2017) to 62.7 (Dec 2017)
During Trump's term, labour force went from 159.7m (Jan 2017) to 160.6m (Dec 2017)
Labour force in Jan 2017 = 62.9% of
159.7m = 100.45m
Labour force in Dec 2017 = 62.7% of
160.6m = 100.7m
Gain of labour force in 2017 = 0.25m jobs
Unemployment dropped 0.7%, 0.7% of original labour force (159.7) = 1.12m
Net gain of jobs = 1.12 + 0.25 = 1.37m over 1 year. 1.37 / 159.7 = 0.85%
Trump =>
0.85% growth in real job growth over (slightly less than)
1 year
Obama =>
2.4% growth over
8 years,
0.3% average growth
per year
This is following a slow performing last year for Obama in these statistics, so you can't really say he inherited an upward trend from Obama.