U.S. Job Gains Increase Slightly in February, But Remain Below Expectations

U.S. employers increased hiring efforts recently, but not as much as economists expected. Employers added roughly 151,000 workers to payrolls in February 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those additions were well above the 125,000 jobs added in January, which were revised down from initial estimates of 143,000, but below the 160,000 to 170,000 job additions expected by economists for February. Still, the U.S. economy has added jobs for 50 consecutive months, the second-longest period of job base expansion on record dating back to 1939. Job growth in February was concentrated in Education/Health Servies (+73,000 jobs), Financial Activities (+21,000 jobs) and Trade/Transportation/Utilities (+21,000 jobs), while and Leisure/Hospitality Services (-16,000 jobs) and Professional/Business Services (-2,000 jobs) were the only major industries to lose jobs during the month. Of note, the 11,000 Government jobs gained in February was muted by the 10,000 jobs lost in Federal Government, the steepest decline since June 2022. However, the full effect of job losses at federal agencies may not be fully seen until this spring. For the year-ending February 2025, the nation’s employers added roughly 1.9 million jobs or an average 162,000 jobs a month. Meanwhile, the U.S. unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range of 4% to 4.2% since May 2024 and registered at 4.1% in February, up 10 basis points from January.

This post is part of a series analyzing employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For more on this data, read previous posts on Job Growth.