National jobs report

February’s jobs report shows 92,000 jobs lost

After a stellar January, last month’s labor market showed an unexpected slowdown. In addition to losing 92,000 jobs, the unemployment rate ticked back up to 4.4%. Experts are pointing toward bad weather, labor strikes, government shutdowns, and other global issues as some of the reasons behind the unexpected jobs numbers.

Here are the key takeaways:

• Labor force participation fell to 62%
• Average hourly earnings rose 0.4%
• A strike at health care provider Kaiser Permanente is considered the culprit behind decreased hiring in the industry, which temporarily dropped roughly 30,000 jobs
• Manufacturing lost 12,000 jobs last month, while informational services fell by 11,000
• January’s jobs report was revised downward from 130,000 to 126,000
• December saw a revision from 50,000 jobs added to the labor market to a loss of 17,000