What February’s jobs report says about the labor market

Employers posted 7.6 million job openings in February, a sign that the job market is slowing but remains healthy. Layoffs of federal workers hit the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic was slamming the economy in 2020, a sign that Elon Musk’s job cuts are starting to show up in national jobs data.

The number of vacancies fell slightly from a revised 7.8 million in January and from 8.4 million a year earlier. Openings have come down more or less steadily since peaking at 12.1 million in March 2022 when the economy was still roaring back from COVID-19 lockdowns.

Layoffs rose to 1.8 million in February from 1.7 million in January. Federal agencies laid off 18,000 workers, the most since October 2020.

The American job market has proved surprisingly durable. But it has clearly lost momentum from the frantic hiring days of 2021-2023. And the outlook for hiring is cloudy as President Donald Trump pursues trade wars, purges the federal workforce and promises to deport millions of immigrants working in the U.S. illegally.

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