U.S. Records Steep Job Losses in February, Contrary to Economists’ Expectations

The U.S. labor market has been on a roller coaster over much of the past year, with big gains followed by steep losses. Contrary to expectations, the U.S. economy lost jobs in February while the unemployment rate rose. In addition, job growth in December and January was not as strong as previously reported, with a combined downward revision of 69,000 jobs. According to a survey of businesses by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. employers decreased payrolls by 92,000 jobs in February 2026, marking the fifth time in nine months that the economy lost jobs and the second-weakest monthly jobs report since December 2020. The February jobs report was vastly different from economists’ expectations of a gain of roughly 50,000 to 60,000 jobs. Nearly every sector recorded job losses in February. The steepest job loss was in the Education/Health Services sector, which was down by 34,000 jobs. That was the first monthly job loss that sector has seen since April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The bulk of that net job loss was in Health Care (-28,000 jobs), which was impacted by a large healthcare workers’ strike in Hawaii and California. However, job losses were also seen in Private Educational Services (-15,700 jobs). Leisure/Hospitality Services also recorded notable job cuts during February, with that sector down by 27,000 jobs, with Food Services and Drinking Places (-29,700 jobs) heavily contributing to that net loss. Financial Activities (+10,000 jobs) and Other Services (+8,000 jobs) were the only major sectors to post job gains during February. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate (U3 or headline unemployment rate, which is seasonally adjusted, and is a survey of households) registered at 4.4% in February. That was up from the January rate of 4.3% and above the year-earlier rate of 4.2% but matched the U.S. average of 4.4% from 2015 to 2019.

This post is part of a series analyzing employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For more on this data, read previous posts on Job Growth.