February 2026 jobs report:

The U.S. economy lost jobs in February, a month marred by severe winter weather and a strike at a major health care provider, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

Nonfarm payrolls fell by 92,000 for the month, compared to the estimate for 50,000 and below the downwardly revised January total of 126,000. February marked the third time in the past five months that payrolls declined, following a sharp revision showing a drop of 17,000 in December.

At the same time, the unemployment rate edged higher to 4.4% as jobs declined across key areas. A broader measure of unemployment that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time positions for economic reasons moved lower, to 7.9% or 0.2 percentage point below the January level.

Health care, the primary growth driver in payrolls for at least the past year, saw a loss of 28,000 due largely to a strike at Kaiser Permanente that sidelined more than 30,000 workers in Hawaii and California. Though the strike has since been resolved, it occurred during the BLS survey week so it subtracted from the jobs total.

While the jobs picture was weak, wages rose more than expected. Average hourly earnings increased 0.4% for the month and 3.8% from a year ago, both 0.1 percentage point above forecast.

“I think it just tells us that the hopes that the labor market was steadying, maybe that was too much,” Mary Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, told CNBC. “We also have inflation printing above target and oil prices rising. How long they last, we don’t know, but both of our goals are in our risks now.”

Information services, a sector hit by artificial intelligence-related cuts, also lost jobs, down 11,000 as part of a 12-month trend in which the sector has lost an average of 5,000 per month. Manufacturing saw a loss of 12,000, despite tariffs aimed at reshoring jobs from overseas.

Federal government employment also fell, off 10,000 for the month. President Donald Trump’s efforts to pare federal payrolls has seen a slide of 330,000 jobs, or 11% of the total workforce, since October 2024, a few months before Trump took office, according to the BLS.

Transportation and warehousing also saw a reduction of 11,000. Social assistance was one of the few sectors posting a gain, up 9,000. The weather-sensitive construction industry lost 11,000 after surging by 48,000 in January.

Long-term unemployment also surged higher, with the average duration of unemployment at 25.7 weeks, the longest since December 2021.

Daly cautioned that the labor market data has been volatile.

“I don’t think you can look through this report, but I also don’t think you should make more of it than one month of data,” she said.

The report comes amid a crosscurrent of economic signals.

Jefferies economist Thomas Simons called the February payrolls drop “a perfect storm of temporary drags coming together following an above-trend print in January.”

“Looking through the weather-impacted sectors and the strike, which ended on…