One major measure of the state of the US workforce is the monthly jobs numbers put out on the first Friday of each month by the Bureau of Labour Statistics, giving the number of jobs created in the previous month as well as the unemployment rate. This initial data is based on survey results reported by employers and is thus rough. In the next two months, the numbers are revised based on more thorough collection of data and then after the end of the year, a final report is published

When the report for August 2025 showed terrible numbers, Trump fired the commissioner of the bureau alleging (without evidence of course) that this career professional was cooking the books to make him look bad. Since then the jobs numbers have fluctuated, as they often do, but the report for February that was published on Friday again show a gloomy picture..

The US lost 92,000 jobs in February, an unexpected major slackening in the labor market that came just before Donald Trump threw the global economy into upheaval with his conflict in Iran.

The unemployment rate edged up to 4.4% in February. In comparison, the US added a revised 126,000 jobs in January, far surpassing expectations of 70,000 jobs but still less than January 2025. Economists predicted an increase of 60,000 jobs added in February and a steady unemployment rate of 4.3%.

The report revised down job figures from December and January. Figures in December went down by 65,000, from 48,000 job gains to 17,000 losses. January saw a much smaller drop, revised down by 4,000 jobs, from 130,000 to 126,000.

January’s job report also included revisions that brought down the total number of jobs added to the economy in 2025 to 181,000 jobs – the weakest year of job growth since Covid and a substantial decrease from the 2m jobs added to the US economy in 2024. And the job growth in 2025 was concentrated in the first half of the year: from July to December 2025, the US economy lost 45,000 jobs.
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“The job market is struggling in the face of so many headwinds. Companies are cautious to hire and some industries are doing layoffs. The February jobs report was dismal with heavy job losses, even in healthcare, and a rise in the unemployment rate,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy federal credit union.

Long noted that the US economy has essentially added no jobs since last April, when Trump announced his slate of tariffs. “Almost every major sector of the economy has been shedding jobs. Even healthcare, the one bright spot had a weak February, though that is attributed to strike activity,” she said.

There have been a huge number of layoffs in the tech sector and increasing use of AI is also going to hurt future numbers. Companies are grabbing on to AI in spite of its many problems because one of the biggest costs is salaries, benefits and overheads associated with employees, and AI offers the promise of getting rid of all but a skeleton staff. But when things go awry, as they surely will, there will be little ability to correct course.

Trump may have to start firing more labor commissioners until the numbers go up.