Trump Pulls It Off - America Loses 92,000 Jobs

The February labor market report hit the United States cold. 92,000 jobs gone, unemployment up to 4.4 percent - and that even though economists had expected a gain of 60,000 jobs. Instead, a loss. And on top of that, the numbers for December and January were revised downward by another 69,000 jobs. You have to let that sink in for a moment. January had still offered hope - 126,000 new jobs, solid numbers, a possible turning point after a miserable 2025 in which the United States created an average of just 15,000 jobs per month. And now this.

Also read: Research Shows: The 862,000 Lie - How Trump Faked His Job Miracle and Why AfD Voters Should Be Warned

Olu Sonola of Fitch Ratings put it bluntly: Just as it looked like the labor market was stabilizing, this report comes out and wipes that out. Bad news, no matter how you spin it. The losses ran across the entire economy. Construction companies cut 11,000 jobs - likely also because of icy weather. In health care, 28,000 jobs disappeared after more than 30,000 nurses and other employees at Kaiser Permanente in California and Hawaii had been on strike for four weeks. Factories cut 12,000 jobs and have now lost positions in 14 of the last 15 months. Restaurants and bars lost nearly 30,000 jobs. Administrative service providers eliminated almost 19,000 positions, courier and delivery services nearly 17,000.

And why all of this? The war with Iran. Failed tariff policy. Cronyism.

Rising oil prices, unpredictable costs for businesses and consumers - all of that is weighing on sentiment and hiring. Brian Bethune of Boston College puts it this way: Companies had just painstakingly adjusted to Trump’s 2025 tariffs, rebuilt their business plans, somehow passed the costs on to customers. And now, from one day to the next, fuel costs exploded because of the war. New plans, new chaos. Heather Long of Navy Federal Credit Union says companies will hire even less this spring as long as the war is not over and it is unclear whether consumers will continue to spend. A tense situation, cautiously phrased.

The bitter part is this: The Federal Reserve is stuck. Cut interest rates to support the labor market? Or hold steady to avoid further fueling inflation driven by the war? Eugenio Aleman of Raymond James calls it the worst possible scenario for monetary policy. And then there is artificial intelligence. Joe Brusuelas of RSM points out that many companies have just invested heavily in new technologies and first want to see what they can accomplish with their existing workforce. Why hire young people if you might have to lay them off again?

The American labor market is caught in a bind that Trump himself helped create - with a tariff policy that has unsettled businesses for years and a geopolitical escalation whose economic consequences are only now becoming visible. Wages did rise by 0.4 percent month over month and 3.8 percent year over year - but that is little comfort when the job numbers look like this. The forecasts for the coming months? Not pretty. Experts expect further massive job losses. But the ballroom at the White House will be magnificent. The AfD swears by this man - and the result of that admiration is a labor market that is coming apart in real time. Economic perjury, served with a gold trim. It was a bad Friday for the American economy.