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 relief 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. Keep reading on HR Brew.—PM |