US Lost Jobs In February, Showing Weaker Economy Than Expected

The U.S. economy unexpectedly shed jobs in February, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released Friday.

Total U.S. nonfarm payroll employment declined by 92,000 in February, the BLS reported. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.4%, according to the BLS.

Economists initially projected the U.S. economy would add roughly 60,000 jobs in February with an unemployment rate of 4.4%, The Hill reported on Friday, citing consensus estimates.

Moreover, the change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December 2025 was revised down by 65,000 while the change for January was revised down by 4,000, according to the BLS’ report. Total employment for December and January combined is now 69,000 lower than previously reported following these revisions, per the BLS.

Friday’s jobs report likely signals underlying “weakness” in the U.S. labor market, according to E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“Although the weather and strikes certainly played a role, those factors don’t explain all the underlying labor market weakness,” Antoni told the DCNF. “With both the survey of business and the survey of households now having been revised, it’s obvious that past job growth and employment gains were once again greatly overestimated, the same problem that existed under [former President Joe] Biden. For example, the data now say that the economy lost jobs in December, before the disruptions from weather or strikes in February.”

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the initial job estimates have become any more accurate, so we can expect the downward revisions to continue until methodological improvements are implemented,” Antoni added.

Antoni also emphasized there is “just no way to put this [jobs] report in a positive light.”

“The headline was lousy and the underlying fundamentals are worse,” he explained. “Private payrolls were down 86,000 last month, the most since the COVID lockdowns in 2020. Full-time jobs fell 100,000 and that’s on top of a massive downward revision for January. Manufacturing is still hemorrhaging jobs and workforce participation is down. In previous reports, we saw the number of native-born Americans with jobs increasing very quickly but even those gains have evaporated. Employment among native-born Americans rose an anemic 128,000 for the 12 months ending in February, which isn’t even enough to cover population growth.”

Additionally, the total number of unemployed people in the U.S. was 7.6 million in February, according to the BLS.

The U.S. health care sector notably shed 28,000 jobs in February, primarily because of a strike at health care provider Kaiser Permanente which sidelined over 30,000 employees in Hawaii and California, CNBC reported on Friday. Severe winter weather in February may also have negatively impacted some weather-sensitive industries such as construction, according to the outlet.

“A rare negative payroll print: February’s -92,000 nonfarm payrolls reading is the first meaningful monthly job loss since the pandemic, when lockdowns produced historic labor market collapses,” Dr. Peter C. Earle, director of economics at the American Institute for Economic Research, told the DCNF in a statement. “Outside of that, a decline of this magnitude is extremely unusual in the modern expansion and signals a sudden deterioration in hiring momentum.”

“Some mitigating factors in the data: Part of the weakness likely reflects temporary distortions, including winter storms and strike activity – particularly in health care – along with some seasonal adjustment volatility early in the year,” Earle added. “Still, the broad decline across sectors, the fall in the labor force participation rate, and the rise in [the] unemployment rate to about 4.4% suggest that the slowdown cannot be dismissed entirely as noise.”

Earle also told the DCNF he thinks the most recent employment numbers strengthen “the case for Federal Reserve [interest] rate cuts” later in 2026.

Moreover, Job Creators Network CEO Alfredo Ortiz said in a Friday statement in response to the February jobs report that the downturn in nonfarm payrolls was largely due to “a number of factors that don’t reflect the strength of the underlying small business economy.”

“First, the worst winter storm since 1996 paralyzed the Northeast, trapping people in their homes, shutting down job sites, and closing retail doors,” Ortiz said. “Second, widespread strike activity, as noted by the BLS, resulted in declining healthcare jobs, which have long been a major employment creation driver. Third, the bloated federal workforce was further cut, freeing up resources for the private economy. Since President [Donald] Trump took office, he has cut 350,000 government jobs — a remarkable achievement. Finally, [artificial intelligence] continues to depress hiring in white-collar industries (though small businesses are taking advantage of it to be more productive).”