The US lost 92,000 jobs in February, a 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 130,000 jobs in January, far surpassing expectations of 70,000 jobs but still 13,000 less than January 2025. Economists predicted an increase of 60,000 jobs added in February and a steady unemployment rate of 4.3%.

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.

“The labor market was slowly deteriorating by a number of measures through 2025. The January report was at least a partial reversal of these trends. This reversal is not showing up in other data sources, like unemployment filings (moderate, but not improving) or Indeed’s job listings,” said Dean Baker, economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in a post before the release of the February jobs report.

He noted the results would demonstrate whether January’s job increases were an anomaly or reinforce the report as a turning point for the US jobs market.

Baker added: “While it may be the case that the labor market is actually improving, it is also possible that the improvement was driven in part by better than usual January weather.”

Because the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Friday is solely focused on jobs in February, it does not capture the global shock waves caused by the US-Israel conflict with Iran. But the new jobs data will be influential in shaping the US Federal Reserve’s upcoming meeting over interest rates on 17 and 18 March.

It’s unclear where Fed officials will land on interest rates, though some seem cautious about making any changes. Ahead of the meeting, Beth M Hammack, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, called for an extended pause of interest rates amid concerns about inflation, even though Trump has been pushing to lower them.