Employers added 151,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department said, based on surveys taken as Trump administration policies were still rolling out.
It might be a moment of hush before chaos ensues, or it may be business as usual.
U.S. employers added 151,000 jobs in February, the first full month under the new Trump administration, the Labor Department reported on Friday. The gain extended a streak of job growth to 50 months. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly, to 4.1 percent, from 4 percent in January.
The report showed a decline of 10,000 in federal employment. But it was based on surveys conducted in the second week of February, as the Trump administration’s mass firings, buyouts and hiring freezes at federal agencies were still unfolding.
The survey has likely not registered “more than a sliver of the full impact from federal government layoffs,” said Preston Caldwell, chief U.S. economist at Morningstar. “That should change in next month’s job report.”
The monthly change in federal government jobs.
A similar waiting game is in store for those hoping to ascertain the effects that President Trump’s tariffs — those imposed and those still threatened — may have on global trading partners, business investment and employment.
Even without the shake-up in foreign trade and federal employment, private-sector hiring has slowed substantially from the blowout pace of 2021 to 2023. That has left labor market analysts and financial commentators gearing up for a potential cooling in economic growth this year.
Unemployment rate
2
4
6
8
10
12
14%
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
4.1%
Change in jobs in February 2025, by sector
Education and health
+73,000 jobs
Construction
+19,000
Government
+11,000
Manufacturing
+10,000
Business services
–2,000
Retail
–6,300
Leisure and hospitality
–16,000
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Source: Economy - nytimes.com
