US payrolls fall by 92,000 in February as unemployment holds at 4.4%

Figures released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show a significant job loss in the U.S. labor market in February. As per the Bureau, "total nonfarm payroll employment edged down by 92,000 in February, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.4 percent." The figures, released this week, have surprised many observers; in contrast to the report, analysts were broadly expecting a gain of approximately 60,000 jobs. 

The decrease was heavily influenced by a major labor dispute in the health care sector, which lost 28,000 jobs during the month. The BLS attributed these losses primarily to a four-week strike involving over 30,000 nurses and front-line workers at Kaiser Permanente in California and Hawaii; the healthcare sector had added an average of 36,000 jobs per month over the 12 months before February. 

The BLS report also highlighted continuing downward trends in other areas of the economy. "Employment in information and the federal government continued to trend down," the BLS said in a press release, informing that federal government payrolls dropped by 10,000 in February. The agency noted that federal employment has been on a long-term decline, falling by 330,000, or 11.0 percent, since reaching its peak in October 2024. The information sector, which had been seeing an average of 5,000 monthly job reductions, continued to trend down, losing 11,000 jobs.  

Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG US, told CNN that the data shows how "fragile the economy is on the labor market side." She elaborated on this sentiment by emphasizing that the recent job losses are not merely a statistical anomaly but a reflection of a deeper, underlying vulnerability. "The labor market weakness that we had seen emerge last year has not completely abated," she said.

On the other side, the report showed that wages continued to climb. "In February, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 15 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $37.32," it stated. In terms of working hours, the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.3 hours. The report also contained a technical adjustment that paints a clearer picture of recent months. The BLS noted, "The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December was revised down by 65,000, from +48,000 to -17,000, and the change for January was revised down by 4,000, from +130,000 to +126,000.” When combined, these revisions mean that the American economy had 69,000 fewer jobs at the end of January than initial reports had indicated.