February’s job losses continue ‘whiplash’ effect for employers

The job market is flip flopping like a fish.

Following an optimistic January jobs report, the labor market lost 92,000 jobs in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest employment situation report. While experts cautioned that one month of job losses should not be taken as gospel about the state of the labor market, it follows a broader trend of uncertainty creating whiplash between job growth and losses in the US.

Diving into the data. Since May, the US labor market has flipped between adding and losing jobs each month. February lost 92,000 jobs, January added 126,000, December lost 17,000, and so on.

“It feels like we’re getting a whiplash from flip flopping back and forth between job gains and job losses,” Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor’s chief economist, told HR Brew. If employers were hoping for some brevity from a chaotic 2025, they may be out of luck. “If we think back to 2025 the theme of the year was quite clearly uncertainty, and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s changing so far into 2026.”

The unemployment rate edged up slightly to 4.4%, though the number of long-term unemployed individuals (which was 1.9 million, up from 1.5 million the year prior) made up more than one-quarter of all unemployed individuals in February. Additionally, the labor force participation rate fell to 62%, its lowest level since December 2021.

Healthcare employment, which was the sole driver of the US’s job growth for years, declined by 28,000 in February, largely due to strike activity. However, thousands of frontline healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente in California and Hawaii and NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital ended their respective strikes later in the month, meaning employment in the sector could improve in March’s report.

In information, employment declined by 12,000 in February, and the sector lost 5,000 jobs on average over the past 12 months. Employment in the federal government, which was impacted by the four-day government shutdown ending in early February and ongoing partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, declined by 10,000.

Several other sectors, including transportation and warehousing, manufacturing, and construction, all lost 11,000 or more jobs in February as well. All were impacted by the severe weather affecting the east coast, Amy Glaser, SVP of business operations at staffing firm Adecco, told HR Brew.

“Those severe storms on the East Coast shut down operations at a lot of facilities,” she said. “February looks fragile, but I think if you take those two underlying root causes of the decline out, I’m still cautiously optimistic we’re going to have a rebound in the spring.”

Zoom out. Despite February’s job losses, the overall picture depicts “a job market that is flattening, rather than falling off a cliff,” Zhao said.

Job turnover has also stagnated recently, creating a “no hire, no fire” job market. Employees and job seekers who see limited opportunities for growth both inside their companies and out in the job market have a “glass half empty” perspective about it.

“The unemployment rate still relatively low, we are still seeing some jobs growth, some wage growth, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that people are happy,” Zhao said. “It’s not our job to tell people they should be happy about the current state of the job market. Clearly, there is this stagnation that people are feeling.”

For HR leaders, now is a critical time to focus on company culture and watch for employees who are checking out. “Employers really need to watch out for their culture. Are they labor hoarding and holding onto people that may have quiet quitted or that really need to look for opportunities elsewhere?” Glaser said. “The number one name of the game right now, when I’m in front of clients, is productivity, and that low-fire directly impacts that as well.”

They should also think outside the box with engaging employees, especially when there’s no budget for traditional incentives like generous raises or promotions, according to Zhao. That can include offering skill development, rotation programs, or encouraging lateral moves within the organization.

HR should “set themselves up for the future when the job market starts to heat up again, because the job market will start to grow again at some point,” he said. “I think HR can make the case that they’re helping set workers up for that future, even if we are in a lull right now.”