Overview
- The Labor Department reported broad losses, including a 28,000 drop in health care tied to a Kaiser Permanente strike, plus declines in leisure and hospitality, construction, manufacturing, and transportation.
- Federal employment fell by roughly 10,000 in February and is down about 330,000, or 11%, since its October 2024 peak, according to the BLS.
- December’s payrolls were revised from a gain to a 17,000 loss and January’s to 126,000, as updated birth‑and‑death modeling and new population controls complicate comparisons with earlier months.
- Traders increased bets on Federal Reserve easing after the report, with CME FedWatch showing higher cut probabilities and Treasury yields falling in response.
- Rising oil and gasoline prices linked to U.S./Israel–Iran hostilities heighten inflation risks before the March 17–18 Fed meeting, and officials including Mary Daly and Neel Kashkari urged caution about drawing conclusions from one report.