The U.S. economy lost jobs in February, marking a major reversal of fortunes for the labor market and nearly erasing all of the job gains delivered a month earlier, government data on Friday showed. The reading came in well below economists’ expectations.<\/p>\n
The U.S. lost 92,000 jobs<\/a> in February, according to the report, which marked a significant dropoff from 130,000 jobs added in the previous month.<\/p>\n The unemployment rate ticked up from 4.3% in January to 4.4% in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said. Unemployment remains low by historical standards.<\/p>\n The new jobs report arrived as markets roil<\/a> and gasoline prices surge<\/a> in response to the war with Iran. The Middle East conflict<\/a> cast fresh uncertainty over the economic outlook.<\/p>\n A hiring cooldown last year prompted interest rate cuts at the Federal Reserve and concern among some observers about the nation’s economic prospects. The U.S. added an average of about 15,000 jobs per month in 2025, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed.<\/p>\n Sluggish hiring has coincided with elevated inflation, threatening a period of “stagflation.”<\/p>\n Those economic headwinds helped set the conditions before the outbreak of war with Iran, which spiked oil prices and risked price increases for a host of diesel-fuel transported goods.<\/p>\n The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 785 points<\/a> on Thursday as U.S. crude prices rose to their highest level since June.<\/p>\n Still, the overall economic picture remains mixed.<\/p>\n A government report in February on gross domestic product (GDP) showed<\/a> the economy grew at a tepid annualized pace of 1.4% over the final three months of 2025. That reading indicated a dramatic cooldown from the strong annualized growth of 4.4% recorded<\/a> in the previous quarter, U.S. Commerce Department data showed.<\/p>\n Price increases, meanwhile, have softened. In January, inflation<\/a> fell to 2.4%, its lowest level in nine months. It remains slightly higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.<\/p>\n