Instant Reaction: US Unexpectedly Sheds 92,000 Jobs in Latest Report
Bloomberg Surveillance
Bloomberg
3.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 March 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
US employers unexpectedly cut jobs in February and the unemployment rate rose, raising doubts about the health of the labor market. Nonfarm payrolls decreased 92,000 last month after a strong start to the year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data out Friday. The unemployment rate climbed to 4.4%. The decline in payrolls partly reflected a decrease in health care employment due to strike activity.
Bloomberg Surveillance broke the numbers and got instant reaction from:
- Claudia Sahm, Chief Economist at New Century Advisors
- Nadia Lovell, Head of Global Equity Strategy at UBS Global Wealth Management
- Jennifer Lee, Senior Economist at BMO Capital Markets
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:28.5 | Bloomberg Audio Studios. |
| 0:30.7 | Podcasts, radio, news. |
| 0:34.6 | This is a breaking news update from Bloomberg. |
| 0:38.9 | Instant reaction and analysis from our 3,000 journalists and analysts around the world. |
| 0:45.3 | I'm Alexis Christophers in these numbers just crossing the Bloomberg now. |
| 0:49.5 | The Labor Department says the U.S. economy lost 92,000 jobs in February that is worse than expected. We were looking at |
| 0:57.9 | an additional 55,000 jobs, and of course this is compared to January when we added 130,000 jobs. |
| 1:04.9 | The unemployment rate ticking up to 4.4%. The estimate there was 4.3% and the prior month |
| 1:10.5 | was 4.3%. Checking wages month over month, |
| 1:13.6 | up slightly to 4 tenths of a percent. Estimates were for 3 tenths and earnings year over year also a bit hotter. |
| 1:20.6 | 3.8% versus the 3.7% expected. But again the headline here, the economy lost many more jobs and expected. |
| 1:27.8 | 92,000 in the month of February. Estimates were for 55,000. We also just got retail sales numbers |
| 1:33.8 | out for the month of January, and they were down 2 tenths of a percent versus the estimate |
| 1:38.7 | of three-tenths of a percent. As for market reaction, it is swift. The Dow futures now down more than 400 points. S&P |
| 1:46.0 | futures off 64. Guys? Claudia Sama, this is we continue with all of her good work here. These are the |
| 1:53.8 | kind of numbers, Claudia, where amateurs like me go, okay, that means diminished GDP. Is that |
| 2:00.2 | correct that all of his sons back to a lesser |
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