Employers added 151,000 jobs in February, missing forecasts

Employers across the U.S. added 151,000 jobs in February, below economists’ forecasts and pointing to a slowdown in the labor market amid signs of slowing economic growth.

The numbers

Economists had forecast that the economy added 160,000 jobs last month, according to a poll by FactSet.

The unemployment rate last month was 4.1%, slightly higher than the 4% rate forecast by economists polled by FactSet.

Hiring has eased since December’s blowout number of 323,000 new jobs, but the labor market has remained resilient at the start of 2025, experts say. 

What it means

The February job figures are “a continued reminder that President Trump inherited a solid labor market — with continued private-sector job creation and an unemployment rate that is quite low by historical standards,” noted Daniel Hornung, former Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, in an email prior to the release of the report.

Notably, however, the widespread, ongoing cuts across the government sector aren’t reflected in today’s report, according to Andy Stettner, an unemployment insurance expert at The Century Foundation. That’s because unemployment claims for federal workers can take several weeks to appear in the official government data, he noted. 

Layoffs across the U.S. spiked last month to their highest levels since 2020, led by firings of federal workers ordered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE,  outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said on Thursday. 

Employers cut more than 172,000 jobs last month, a 245% increase from January and double the number announced during the same month a year ago, the company said. That marks the highest monthly number of layoffs since July 2020, when nearly 263,000 cuts were announced, the firm added.