(Reuters) -The American economy created more jobs in February, but the resilience of the labor market seems more fragile in a context of increasing uncertainty around the commercial and budgetary policies of Donald Trump.
The monthly report of the Labor Department published on Friday identified 151,000 non -agricultural jobs created last month after 125,000 in January (revised figure of 143,000).
The economists interviewed by Reuters, however, provided for a higher figure, with an average forecast of 160,000 net creations.
The unemployment rate also dates back somewhat 4.1% after 4.0% in January, while analysts expected stability.
The average salary in the private sector increased 0.3% in February, in accordance with analysts’ expectations, compared to 0.4% (revised 0.5%) a month earlier.
This is the first monthly employment report which has reflected the impact of Donald Trump’s policies since his entry into office at the end of January. According to economists, the procrastination of his administration in customs policy prevented companies from organizing for the coming months.
The dismissals of federal employees ordered by the Department of Government efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk were however not taken into account in the monthly report, a large part of the job cuts occurring outside the investigation week.
Since January, the confidence of companies and consumers has plunged, erasing all the gains recorded after the presidential election in November. The markets also fell back, the three major indices at Wall Street correcting downwards after reaching heights last December.
Until now, the resilience of the job market has been the main engine of the economic activity of the United States by supporting private consumption. However, the Atlanta Federal Reserve warned that American GDP could contract 2.4% in annualized rate in the first quarter, after growth of 2.3% in the quarter October-December.
“The economy started slowly under the aegis of the new president,” observes Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds. “We cannot have mass layoffs of federal employees and subcontractors thinking that this will not cause job cuts in the private sector”.
(Written by Lucia Mutikani; Pauline Foret, edited by Kate Entringer and Blandine Hénault)
Copyright © 2025 Thomson Reuters
I have over 8 years of experience working in the news industry. I have worked as a reporter, editor, and now managing editor at 247 News Agency. I am responsible for the day-to-day operations of the news website and overseeing all of the content that is published. I also write a column for the website, covering mostly market news.
