U.S. Lost 92,000 Jobs in February as Unemployment Rate Rose to 4.4%

The U.S. economy lost 92,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday, a much weaker result than the gain of about 50,000 that economists had expected, according to CNBC and NBC News. NBC reported that economists had expected the jobless rate to be 4.3 percent. It was the third decline in monthly payrolls in five months, CNBC reported.

Revisions made the picture worse. January’s gain was revised down slightly to 126,000, and December was revised from a gain of 50,000 to a loss of 17,000, both outlets reported. Mark Hamrick of Bankrate told NBC the revisions removed a combined 69,000 jobs and called the report “ugly.”

A strike was part of the story. Health care employment fell by 28,000, which the Labor Department attributed mainly to a Kaiser Permanente strike that kept more than 30,000 workers out in Hawaii and California, CNBC reported; NBC put the number of strikers at about 31,000. The strike ended Feb. 23 but fell during the survey week, CNBC reported. NBC noted that health care was the main driver of job gains in 2025.

Other sectors were also soft. CNBC reported that information services lost 11,000 jobs, manufacturing 12,000, transportation and warehousing 11,000 and construction 11,000, and that the federal government lost 10,000 jobs, bringing federal employment down by 330,000 since October 2024. NBC described the information technology, federal government and transportation and warehousing sectors as weaker and said manufacturing showed little change.

CNBC reported that the labor force participation rate slipped to 62 percent, its lowest since December 2021, as did Hamrick, who said it could signal discouraged workers. Average hourly earnings rose 0.4 percent in the month and 3.8 percent from a year earlier, CNBC reported.

Officials and economists read the report differently. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said, “I don’t think you can look through this report,” CNBC reported. Jefferies economist Thomas Simons called the drop a mix of temporary factors, mostly the strike and weather, after a strong January. White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett argued that reduced immigration has lowered the number of jobs needed each month to keep up with the labor force to roughly 30,000 to 40,000, CNBC reported. Seema Shah of Principal Asset Management told NBC the labor market remains in a “low-hire, low-fire equilibrium” that is softening but not yet unraveling.

The report bears on the Federal Reserve’s next move. Fed Governor Christopher Waller said a weak report could justify easing sooner, CNBC reported. Traders moved their expectation for the next rate cut up to July, CNBC reported, while NBC said the Fed was not expected to cut until summer at the earliest. Rising oil prices tied to the U.S. war on Iran add to inflation worries, NBC reported. Bond yields fell sharply after the release, according to NBC.