Job growth fizzled in February, a sign of unexpected weakness in the labor market.

Employers cut 92,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department reported Friday, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4%. The job losses cut across nearly all major sectors, including health care, which was weighed down by a nurses strike in California.

The report dimmed the picture of the labor market and all but shut down the prospect of a resurgence in growth after an anemic year of hiring that was weighed down by economic uncertainty. Many economists had forecast that employers would shake off their reluctance to hire this year.

Here’s what else to know:

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Wages solid:

Wage growth remained healthy, at 3.8% over the year. Average hourly earnings have been slowing very gradually, but remain relatively steady.-

— Participation drops: The share of people in their prime years who were either working or looking for work fell slightly in February, to 83.9%.

— Job concentration: Health care employment fell by 19,000 jobs in February, dragged down by a nurses strike in California that kept 31,000 people out of work. The health care industry has powered job growth, driven by the country’s aging population. But that dominance has raised concerns that the job market is more vulnerable than top-line numbers suggest.

— Low hire, low fire: Employers for months have been in something of a holding pattern. The number of job openings in December, the most recent month for which data is available, fell to its lowest level since September 2020. At the same time, initial claims for unemployment insurance have stayed low, indicating that employers overall are not laying off workers in large numbers despite some headline-grabbing jobs cuts at major companies.

— Labor supply: The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has contributed to slower growth in the supply of labor. That has made it difficult to determine if a slowdown in job growth is caused by decreasing demand for workers, fewer available job-seekers or a combination of both.

— Fed implications: The report is certain to stoke divisions at the Federal Reserve, which holds its next meeting on March 17-18. Some officials appear highly concerned about the health of the labor market and willing to cut rates to support it, while others seem more focused on the risk posed by inflation, especially given the conflict in the Middle East.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Sydney Ember/Scott McIntyre

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