News & Insights

Nonfarm payroll employment declined by 92,000 in February, coming in below expectations of a nominal gain. Meanwhile, December and January’s job gains were revised downward by 69,000 to a loss of 17,000 jobs and a gain of 126,000 jobs, respectively. The industries with the most significant job gains in January—health care and construction—both shed jobs in February. The 12-month average stands at just 13,000 job gains per month. At the same time, the unemployment rate inched up 0.1 percentage point from January to 4.4% in February, while the labor force participation rate ticked down 0.1 percentage point to 62.0%.

After edging up in January after 13 consecutive months of declines, manufacturing employment decreased by 12,000 in February. On the other hand, the collective job losses in December and January of 3,000 were revised downward by 5,000 jobs to a decrease of 8,000 jobs. Manufacturing employment is down 98,000 over the year. Durable goods manufacturing employment fell by 4,000 in February, while nondurable goods employment dropped by 8,000. The most significant gain in manufacturing in February occurred in fabricated metal product manufacturing, which added 2,100 jobs over the month. Meanwhile, the most significant loss occurred in plastics and rubber products manufacturing, which shed 4,200 jobs over the month.

The employment-population ratio edged down 0.1 percentage point from January to 59.3% in February and is down 0.6 percentage points from a year ago. On the other hand, employed persons who are part-time workers for economic reasons declined by 477,000 from January to 4.4 million in February and are down from 4.9 million in February 2025. Native-born employment is up 877,000 from January and 128,000 over the year. Meanwhile, foreign-born employment is down 394,000 over the month and 519,000 over the year. At the same time, the native-born unemployment rate is up 0.3 percentage points over the year to 4.7% in February, while the foreign-born unemployment rate stayed the same at 4.7%.

Average hourly earnings for all private nonfarm payroll employees rose 0.4%, or 15 cents, reaching $37.32. Over the past year, earnings have grown 3.8%. The average workweek for all employees stayed the same at 34.3 hours but inched down by 0.1 hour to 40.1 hours for manufacturing employees.