Are trade deficits associated with higher levels of employment?

For years, even among eminent libertarians, it has been argued that trade deficits are associated with higher levels of unemployment.

But is this true?

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) put together this chart that shows trade deficits are really connected with higher levels of employment.

More from AEI:

The chart above shows graphically the close relationship over time between annual US civilian employment and US trade deficits (inverted) from 1972 to 2017. A starting date of 1972 was selected because it marked the early part of the period when the US first started running persistent and increasingly large trade deficits for goods and services. Despite the false narrative of rising trade deficits leading to U.S. job losses, the exact opposite has been true for nearly the last half-century as the chart shows: Rising trade deficits over time have been closely associated with increased levels of employment in the U.S.