Stock market numbers are displayed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on March 6, 2026. All three major indexes continued to fall at the open as oil prices rose on the back of the war with Iran and a feeble jobs report. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – The United States lost 92,000 jobs in February, leading to a slight enhance in unemployment, according to the latest jobs figures released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The report showed losses in non-farm jobs for the third time in the past five months, highlighting a continued “downward trend” in the information sector and federal government employment. According to the office, the number of federal employees has declined 11% from its peak in October 2024. The report also noted a decline in health care jobs, “reflecting strike activity.”
Unemployment rose to 4.4% from 4.3% in the year January, and rates remained higher for women, youth and nonwhite workers.
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Administration officials attributed the job losses to winter weather on the East Coast and labor disputes among health care workers on the West Coast.
But Democrats criticized President Donald Trump’s policies, including military action in Iran and the reimposition of tariffs after the U.S. Supreme Court said many of Trump’s taxes on foreign goods were illegal.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday’s report was a “blazing alarm that Donald Trump’s economy is rapidly deteriorating” and speculated that the nearly week-long war in Iran will only make things worse.
“Now we have seen job losses in two of the last three months and an economy teetering on the brink of recession,” Schumer said in a statement Friday morning. “Tariffs are raising costs, gas prices are rising and jobs are disappearing: the Trump Republican agenda is failing the American people, and without an immediate change of course, the economy could go south.”
The unexpected report, coupled with uncertainty over the war with Iran, rocked US markets on Friday morning and triggered a decline in all indices, according to a daily update by Eric Criscuolo of the New York Stock Exchange.
According to Criscuolo, economists had expected job growth in the US of around 59,000 jobs in February. Furthermore, the report is in stark contrast to January figures, which showed the economy added 130,000 jobs. after to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Trump officials exude optimism
But the government brushes aside negative headlines and attributes the feeble report to ice and snow storms in February and a year ago month-long strike by Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers.
“While record-breaking strikes and severe winter weather reduced nonfarm payrolls in February, the unemployment rate remained stable, and there are several positive signs for our economy that continue to show that American workers are recovering from the mess left behind by Biden,” Labor Secretary Lorie Chavez DeReemer said in a statement.
She added that the government’s massive tax and spending cuts law passed in July was positive for the economy.
Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, told CNBC on Friday: “I think what we need to do with these job numbers, at least on the payroll side, is take the average over a couple of months.”
“And if you look at the average over a couple of months, we had a surprise positive last month and a surprise negative one this month. But on average, it’s about what we expect,” he said, adding that the edged decline in immigration is leading to “break-even employment” in the U.S
No growth
Economists warned that the jobs report builds on a negative economic outlook for the country.
“While it never makes sense to read too much into a month’s worth of data, this morning’s report showing a decline in nonfarm payrolls and a rise in the unemployment rate comes at a difficult time, with inflation still above target and an oil price shock pushing inflation higher,” said Daniel Hornung, a fellow at the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research.
“The report complicates the Fed’s efforts to keep both unemployment and inflation low and makes it difficult for the administration to argue ahead of the midterm elections that its policies are leading to the growth or improvement in living standards it has long promised,” said Hornung, deputy director of the National Economic Council under President Joe Biden.
David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, called the report “weak.”
“We’re actually not seeing any job growth at all in this economy,” Kelly said told CNBC Friday morning. “But because immigration has done such a 180-degree crisis here and we have a huge decline in the workforce — and that’s preventing the unemployment rate here from skyrocketing — it’s a very, very slow economy.”
