What’s Actually Happening in the U.S. Jobs Market?

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, News

4.1 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2026

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The U.S. job market is a study in contradictions. While a new report shows January saw the highest level of layoffs since 2009—driven by corporate downsizing and AI integration—the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a surprising gain of 130,000 jobs. Meanwhile, recent data revisions suggest that hiring over the past two years was significantly weaker than previously thought, with workers and employers starting to question the reliability of official figures. WSJ reporters Justin Lahart and Lindsay Ellis discuss listener questions on the state of hiring, and whether the labor market is better or worse than the official data suggests. Further Reading: What Sweeping Revisions and a Blowout Month Tell Us About the U.S. Job Market Job Growth Last Year Was Far Worse Than We Thought. Here’s Why. This Is Why It’s So Hard to Find a Job Right Now America’s Job Market Has Entered the Slow Lane Job Hunters Are So Desperate That They’re Paying to Get Recruited CEOs Say AI Is Making Work More Efficient. Employees Tell a Different Story. Five Older Job Seekers Tell Us How They Broke Through a Bruising Job Market Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sharpen your perspective on the future of technology and business in 2026. Take a look inside the new
0:05.9	edition of ThoughtWorks Looking Glass and discover how business leaders can prepare their organizations for the future and make informed decisions that have a lasting impact. Find out more at ThoughtWorks.com slash looking glass.
0:23.1	Hey, what's news listeners.
0:24.6	It's Sunday, February 15th.
0:26.9	I'm Luke Fargus for the Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News Sunday, the show
0:30.8	where we tackle the big questions about the biggest stories in the news by reaching out
0:34.9	to our colleagues across the newsroom to help explain what's
0:37.8	happening in our world. And this week, how strong is the U.S. labor market? A new report finds
0:43.7	U.S. employers just shed more jobs in January than at any point since 2009. Big businesses
0:50.4	are announcing layoffs, and AI and automation are nipping at the heels of what
0:55.0	feels like a lot of people's jobs.
0:57.5	But are things really that bad?
0:59.6	Or could they be about to get a whole lot worse?
1:02.9	We've got a pair of journal reporters with us to answer your questions about the job market,
1:06.8	so let's get right to it.
1:12.0	130,000. That's the number of jobs the U.S. added in January, more than doubling analyst
1:17.6	expectations, with gains in health care and social assistance roles helping to outnumber
1:22.8	declines in government, warehousing, information, and financial services. But if that data point still
1:29.1	leaves a lot unsaid about the complex state of the jobs market, especially with new revisions
1:34.5	to the data showing that fewer jobs were created over the last two years than previously thought,
1:40.0	well, worry not, because we've been tracking down answers to your questions about the job market from a pair of excellent reporters.
1:46.5	Justin Layhart covers economics for us out of New York.
	...

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