The U.S. labor market experienced a sharp downturn in February 2026, with nonfarm payroll employment declining by 92,000 jobs, according to the latest Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released March 6. This marked a significant reversal of January’s stronger-than-expected performance and fell well short of economists’ consensus forecasts for modest gains.
The Joint Economic Committee highlighted the figures in its Monthly Employment Update, noting that the decline consisted of -86,000 jobs in the private sector and -6,000 in government.
The headline unemployment rate (U-3) rose 0.1% to 4.4% while the broader U-6 measure—which includes underemployed workers—improved slightly, falling 0.2% to 7.9%. The labor force participation rate dipped 0.1% to 62%, and the employment-to-population ratio decreased to 59.3%.
Significant downward revisions to prior months compounded the weaker outlook. December 2025 was revised to show a net loss of 17,000 jobs (from an initial gain of 45,000), and January 2026 was adjusted down by 4,000 to 126,000 jobs. Combined, these revisions reduced reported employment gains for December and January by 69,000 jobs.
Sector performance in February showed mixed results. Gains were led by financial activities (+10,000 jobs) and other services (+8,000 jobs). Losses were concentrated in private education and health services (-34,000 jobs, influenced by strike activity in health care) and leisure and hospitality (-27,000 jobs).
On a year-over-year basis (February 2025 to February 2026), total nonfarm payroll rose by approximately 156,000 jobs, with strong contributions from private education and health services (+658,000) and leisure and hospitality (+126,000). However, notable declines occurred in federal government (-314,000) and trade, transportation, and utilities (-191,000).
Wage growth remained positive amid the slowdown. For all private non-farm employees, average hourly earnings increased 3.84% year-over-year to $37.32, while average weekly earnings rose 4.14% to $1,280.08. Among production and nonsupervisory employees, hourly earnings grew 3.69% to $32.03, and weekly earnings advanced 4.31% to $1,082.61.
The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey data (for December 2025) indicated cooling demand, with nonfarm job openings falling by 386,000 to 6.54 million. Hires rose by 172,000 to 5.29 million, while separations increased by 107,000 to 5.25 million, including modest gains in quits and larger rises in layoffs and discharges.
The data points to emerging softness in the labor market, influenced by temporary factors including the severe winter weather and significant strike activity in health care, though broader indicators like wage growth and a still-low unemployment rate suggest resilience.
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
The Joint Economic Committee released its Monthly Inflation Update for January 2026 last week, highlighting a modest cooling in consumer price pressures as headline inflation declined below expectations.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 2.39% year-over-year in January, down from 2.68% in December 2025. This marks a continued easing trend and comes in slightly below Cleveland Federal Reserve’s forecast of 2.36%.
Core CPI-U, which excludes volatile food and energy components, increased 2.50% over the same period, compared to 2.64% the prior month. Month-over-month, headline CPI-U advanced 0.17% from December to January, while core CPI-U rose 0.30%.
Key drivers included a sharp decline in energy prices, which fell -1.47% month-over-month and -0.14% year-over-year, a drop of 2.44 percentage points from December’s year-over-year figure. Food prices, meanwhile, increased 0.19% monthly and 2.88% annually, up 0.38 percentage points from the previous year.
Inflation continued to ease across all regions in January 2026, though rates varied geographically. The Northeast posted the highest inflation at 2.8%, followed by the West at 2.7% and the Midwest at 2.4%, while the South recorded the lowest rate at 1.9%. Each region experienced a decline from December levels.
The report also highlighted positive developments in workers’ purchasing power. Real average weekly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose 0.53% from December to January and climbed 1.88% year-over-year. Real average hourly earnings increased 0.26% monthly and 1.25% annually. For production and nonsupervisory employees, real weekly earnings grew even more robustly at 2.16% year-over-year.
These gains reflect wages outpacing inflation, providing American workers with improved real income amid moderating price pressures.
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
As the tech industry continues to boom, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects over 317,700 annual job openings in tech and computing fields through 2034, far outpacing other sectors.
Arizona, home to a growing tech scene, ranks 44th out of 50 states for pursuing a tech career, according to research by TryHackMe. The study highlights how tech graduates in Arizona earn 52.5% more than the average graduate but face higher costs and lower overall prospects compared to top-performing states like Alaska, Wyoming, and Utah.
The analysis evaluated states on key factors, including the average annual cost of a tech degree, the number of schools offering tech courses, median earnings for tech graduates four years after graduation, and how those earnings compare to the median for all graduates.
Arizona ranked 44th overall with a score of just 2.65 out of 10, highlighting notable challenges for tech career growth. Despite having 120 institutions that offer tech-related programs, the average annual tuition of $19,310 remains a significant financial barrier for many students.
Four years post-graduation, tech alumni in Arizona earn a median salary of $51,705—52.5% above the state average of $33,894 for all graduates. These earnings still trail behind many other states, where tech graduates see even greater returns on their investments.
The top 5 destinations for tech careers are:
Alaska (Score: 7.31/10) – Average annual cost of tuition: $12,982; Schools: 9; Median tech earnings: $76,773 (146.1% more than the state average of $31,197).
Wyoming (Score: 7.02/10) – Average annual cost of tuition: $10,537; Schools: 10; Median tech earnings: $60,313 (50.6% more than the state average of $40,050).
Utah (Score: 6.89/10) – Average annual cost of tuition: $16,387; Schools: 63; Median tech earnings: $74,702 (152.1% more than the state average of $29,635).
Kentucky (Score: 6.25/10) – Average annual cost of tuition: $14,657; Schools: 87; Median tech earnings: $49,798 (58.3% more than the state average of $31,450).
Maryland (Score: 6.14/10) – Average annual cost of tuition: $16,875; Schools: 80; Median tech earnings: $66,943 (65.9% more than the state average of $40,342).
The top 5 worst destinations for tech careers are:
Rhode Island (Score: 1.04/10) – Average annual cost of tuition: $26,628; Schools: 22; Median tech earnings: $67,325 (52.0% more than the state average of $44,287).
New Hampshire (Score: 2.25/10) – Average annual cost of tuition: $20,505; Schools: 33; Median tech earnings: $71,109 (72.0% more than the state average of $41,336).
Maine (Score: 2.28/10) – Average annual cost of tuition: $17,755; Schools: 37; Median tech earnings: $58,611 (44.1% more than the state average of $40,682).
Pennsylvania (Score: 2.51/10) – Average annual cost of tuition: $20,603; Schools: 331; Median tech earnings: $56,834 (38.5% more than the state average of $41,024).
Minnesota (Score: 2.55/10) – Average annual cost of tuition: $17,238; Schools: 108; Median tech earnings: $66,383 (56.5% more than the state average of $42,414).
“The prospects for tech graduates are among the best in any field, and it’s only set to grow stronger with the Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting that tech is likely to have a bigger job boom than most sectors,” said Ben Spring, Co-founder of TryHackMe. “This study highlights where in the US, tech graduates will see the best prospects compared to their fellow graduates, with states such as Maine and Rhode Island needing to invest more into tech courses and job markets to compete with the likes of Alaska and Wyoming.”
Ethan Faverino is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Guess what! Inflation, growth, jobs: Conventional wisdom from America’s economic punditry was across-the-board wrong. Again.
At the year’s start the punditry predicted that Trump’s tariffs would cause a surge of inflation and would likely trigger recession. Well, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers on Thursday. Reuters’ polling of private economists predicted inflation would accelerate to 3.1% year-over-year, the fastest pace since 2023. The actual BLS figure came in at 2.7%, with core inflation even lower at 2.6%.
But the news gets better. Year-over-year inflation means it includes inflationary pressures from the end of Biden’s presidency. It’s a very lagging figure.
To understand what inflation’s doing now, and to filter out some of the data’s noise, a better gauge is to look at inflation over the last two months, which came in at 1.2% annualized, well below the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
There is a small caveat to this good news. Due to the Schumer government shutdown, BLS was unable to collect all the usual data for the CPI report, so some items were left out. The economists who predicted accelerating inflation are thus arguing that inflation would, with all the data, have been much higher and thus excusing their bad forecasts.
However, as New York Fed President John Williams points out, the missing data “pushed down the CPI reading, probably by a tenth or so.” OK, so topline inflation was 2.8% while the annualized two-month figure goes to 1.8%, still well below consensus forecast and still below the Fed’s target rate.
What about Trump’s tariffs? To be sure, they pushed some prices up faster than they otherwise would have. But the tariffs only applied to a small fraction of all the goods and services sold in America. So, when it comes to overall inflation, the net effect could never be more than a one-time rounding error.
Further, inflation is fundamentally a monetary phenomenon. These tariff-induced price bumps occurred against a background of the underlying inflationary impulse from money supply interacting with money demand. The Fed has run a moderately restrictive policy for years, so naturally inflation is falling.
Assuming at least one of the Fed’s legion of economists can do this two-month calculation and has the temerity to show it to Chair Powell and the rest of the Fed’s leadership, then further Fed rate cuts should be assured and imminent on the road to neutral.
And what about that predicted recession? After inflation, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) soared 3.8% in the second quarter of this year, while the Atlanta Fed’s “Nowcast” of third quarter GDP is a still-impressive 3.5%.
Some of Reuters’ economists will likely portray this slight slowdown in growth as “scary” and a sign of pending recession. Nonsense. The economy is ripping, with the only recession pending threatening the salaries of those economists making silly forecasts.
Finally, those still desperate to argue economic weakness might turn to the labor market. The economy generated about 166,000 jobs a month during Biden’s last year in office. So far under Trump the economy has generated about 50,000 jobs a month. Sounds scary, but much of that decline occurred because federal employment fell by 27,000 jobs a month.
The even bigger jobs story is that employment by foreign-born workers has fallen by about 100,000 a month under Trump. This is what happens when immigration laws are enforced and the border is secured. Put it all together and private-sector native-born employment is doing very well.
And the cherry on top is that after stagnating for the four years of the Biden presidency, median real wages are now rising at a 1.6% annualized rate. Rising wages and plentiful private-sector jobs, not gimmicks like Obamacare subsidies and rent controls, are how you prosper American workers or, in today’s parlance, address “affordability.”
Just don’t be surprised if you don’t hear that from the legacy media.
J.D. Foster is a contributor to the Daily Caller News Foundation. He is the former chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget and former chief economist and senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He now resides in relative freedom in the hills of Idaho.
Arizona’s labor market continued to struggle in July, losing nearly 5,000 jobs and marking the state’s third consecutive month of employment decline, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The state shed 4,900 nonfarm jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis last month, a 0.15% decrease that ranked Arizona 46th among all states in monthly job growth. Since April, the state has lost a total of 23,400 jobs—the steepest decline in both raw numbers and percentage change of any state in the nation.
Nationally, employment also slipped, falling 0.12% in July. Twenty-one states reported job losses.
On a year-over-year basis, Arizona gained 29,600 jobs, a 0.9% increase that puts the state roughly in line with the national average of 1.0%. But the pace of growth has slowed sharply compared to recent years. So far in 2025, Arizona has added just 5,200 jobs—an average of 743 per month. Between 2022 and 2024, monthly job growth averaged more than 5,300.
Economists say the state remains well below its pre-pandemic trajectory. Arizona now has about 254,400 fewer workers than it would have had if its 2017–2019 growth trend had continued. At the current pace, the gap is unlikely to close.
The state’s mining and logging industry was the strongest performer, adding 1,400 jobs in July and growing nearly 10% over the past year. Analysts credit federal policy shifts and rising demand for U.S.-sourced raw materials like copper and uranium for the sector’s continued momentum.
By contrast, manufacturing continued to contract, losing 1,100 jobs last month and more than 3,000 over the past year—a 1.6% decline. Nationwide, the sector has also struggled, with 29 states reporting year-over-year manufacturing job losses. Leisure and hospitality posted the steepest monthly decline in Arizona, down 0.9% in July.
Arizona’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1%, holding steady for the fifth straight month. The labor force participation rate also stayed flat at 61.4%. By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% in July, while the national participation rate edged down to 62.2%. Both Arizona and the nation remain below pre-pandemic participation levels.
Wages showed modest improvement. Average hourly earnings in Arizona increased by 10 cents in July to $34.79, a 0.29% rise that ranked 18th among all states. Over the past 12 months, wages in the state climbed 4.9%, outpacing the national average of 3.9%. Adjusted for inflation, real wages in Arizona are up 4% compared to just 1.1% nationwide.
Still, long-term wage trends tell a different story. Since April 2020, inflation-adjusted pay in Arizona has fallen 4.1%.
The report also underscored concerns about the reliability of monthly employment estimates. June’s figures were revised downward sharply—from a reported loss of 8,400 jobs to a revised loss of 15,200. That revision ranked as the seventh largest adjustment among all states.
Economists caution that declining survey response rates and lingering disruptions from the pandemic have increased volatility in state-level labor data, making short-term trends harder to interpret.
Jonathan Eberle is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
