The U.S. labor market added 92,000 jobs in February, extending the sluggish growth that marked much of 2025.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4 percent, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The labor market kicked off the year on a steady foot, adding 130,000 new positions in January, close to the same number that it added in all of 2025 — the weakest year since the pandemic.
A variety of factors have been dampening employers’ hiring plans, including uncertainty related to trade policy, artificial intelligence and the availability of immigrant workers, among other geopolitical factors. Plus, in February, winters storms weighed on job creation.
“There’s momentum in the market, but it’s going to be more subdued,” said Nicole Bachaud, labor economist at the jobs site ZipRecruiter. “A number of things, including the recent [Supreme Court] ruling on tariffs, are bringing more uncertainty to businesses.”
Trump announced a new global import tax in February after the Supreme Court determined that the president had exceeded his authority by imposing trade barriers on goods from around the world, pushing businesses into renewed uncertainty about their plans.
Meanwhile, employers’ reluctance to hire was on display in the Federal Reserve’s beige book released this week, a collection of anecdotes about the state of the economy that emphasized solid staffing levels but weak hiring, in part due to muted consumer demand tied to rising prices.
For months, most job creation in the United States had remained concentrated in health care, rendering the labor market more vulnerable to external shocks.
“Our data leads me to believe we’re going to see a continuation of what we have been seeing, which is stagnation in the white-collar business-related type fields [and] a continuation of strength in just a couple of areas, specifically health care and social assistance,” said Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at Indeed.
Layoffs remain low. The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims was unchanged last week, according to a separate report released by the Labor Department on Thursday. And layoffs fell sharply in February with U.S. employers announcing roughly 48,000 layoffs, 55 percent less than January, according to according to a report released Thursday by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
There are some signs that the hiring could accelerate this year. Consumer spending, driven by the wealthy, remains elevated. And worker productivity is strong. Companies are also expecting to benefit from lower tax rates and deregulation, which could boost hiring plans, though a rapidly widening war in the Middle East is stoking inflation fears. A surge in energy prices could mean that the Federal Reserve leaves interest rates unchanged.
Joe Brusuelas, chief economist for the accounting firm RSM, said that his firm’s internal surveys show that employers are planning to make significant investments in artificial intelligence and other technology expenditures early this year, which should result in more hiring as the year progresses.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement actions have reshaped the labor market over the past year, and fewer jobs are needed to keep the unemployment rate steady compared with previous years. Economists say that payroll growth of about 50,000 positions per month could be enough to keep the unemployment rate steady.
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