US job market stalls, unemployment rate rises before Fed decision

The healthcare sector was hit the hardest while tariff expose sectors remained stagnantPublished On 6 Mar 2026The United States economy unexpectedly lost 92,000 jobs in February, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4 percent, marking the sixth contraction of the US job market of the Trump administration.The February jobs report was released by the US Labor Department on Friday.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4US states sue to stop Trump’s latest global tariffslist 2 of 4Tens of thousands in scramble for flights out of Middle East amid Iran warlist 3 of 4Moscow sees significant rise in demand for Russian oil, gas amid Iran warlist 4 of 4In a bid to counter China, Trump hosts a summit for Latin America leadersend of listEconomists had forecast marginal gains, with a survey of economists by the Reuters news agency at 59,000, by Bloomberg News at 55,000, and by Dow Jones at 50,000.The unemployment rate rose slightly by 0.1 percent from 4.3 percent in January, with more than 25 percent of unemployed workers without a job for more than 27 weeks.Hardest hit sectorsFebruary’s decline follows downwardly revised gains in January, when the US economy added 126,000 jobs.The healthcare sector was hit the hardest, losing 28,000 jobs in February. Cuts to the federal government also continued, with 10,000 fewer jobs across the industry in February. However, that was underscored by strikes in California, Hawaii, and New York.The cuts to the healthcare industry come despite the ADP’s private payroll report out on Thursday, which showed that education and health services added 58,000 jobs. The ADP private payroll report showed a total of 63,000 jobs added for the month.Tariff-exposed sectors were still hit hard, including transportation and warehousing, which lost 11,000 for the month. The industry has lost 157,000 jobs since this time last year.Industries including construction, wholesale trade, retail, as well as leisure and hospitality, saw no change from this time last month. Though the import duties were struck down earlier in February by the US Supreme Court, Trump imposed a 10 percent global tariff moving forward and has said that will soon rise to 15 percent.