U.S. employers added solid 151,000 jobs last month, but the outlook is cloudy as President Donald Trump threatens a trade war, purges the federal workforce, and promises to deport millions of immigrants, the Associated Press reports.
The Labor Department reported Friday that hiring was up from a revised 125,000 in January. Economists had expected 160,000 new jobs last month. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.1% as the number of jobless Americans rose by 203,000.
Employment rose in health care, finance, and transportation and warehousing. The federal government shed 10,000 jobs, the most since June 2022, though economists don’t expect Trump’s federal layoffs to have much of an impact until the March jobs report.
The job market has been remarkably resilient over the past year despite high interest rates.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% last month, down from a 0.4% increase in January, a drop likely to be welcomed by the Fed — but not enough to get the central bank to cut rates at its next meeting March 18-19. In fact, Wall Street traders aren’t expecting another cut until May, and they’re not especially confident about that one, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
