Total nonfarm payroll lost 92,000 jobs in February, and the unemployment rate inched up to 4.4%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — the largest monthly job loss since 2020, discounting the October government shutdown, according to ZipRecruiter.
“Today’s jobs report was overwhelmingly disappointing — there’s no other way to say it,” Cory Stahle, economist for Indeed Hiring Lab, said in a statement.
Economists expected the economy to gain jobs; ADP’s National Employment Report, for example, indicated that February gained 63,000 jobs, while other estimates put gains around 50,000.
“Today’s data show that the labor market has averaged essentially zero net job creation over the past six months,” Stahle continued. “This is concerning because when an economy stops creating jobs, it’s often not long before it starts losing them.”
Losses in February were driven in part by healthcare worker strikes, since healthcare has largely been the jobs engine for the economy in recent reports, Andrew Flowers, chief economist at Appcast, said in a statement. But even accounting for that, job declines are still present, he noted.
“When labor market growth depends on a sole industry, we will inevitably end up with large swings like today,” Flowers said.
Real-time data from ManpowerGroup points to a market that is “trying to find a more balanced rhythm,” Ger Doyle, regional president of North America for the company, said in a statement. “Open job postings remain softer than a year ago, yet new postings are holding relatively steady, which shows that employers are being deliberate about the roles they bring to market.”
In all, employers may be waiting to see how the market shapes up before they make broader hiring plans, Doyle noted.
