THE NEW YORK TIMES: A weaker-than-expected report for February showed a decline of 92,000 jobs, and a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.4 percent.
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 on Friday, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4 percent. 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.
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