Hiring in the US drops to pandemic lows as job market under Trump stagnates

[groundloop]

Source: Aljazeera

Job openings in the United States have dropped to their lowest level in six years, as the demand for labour stalls amid concerns about trade, immigration and the surging role of artificial intelligence (AI).

Tuesday’s Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey (JOLTS), a monthly report released by the US Labour Department, showed that job openings tumbled by 358,000 to 6.882 million in February.

That was down from a projected 6.918 million job openings for the month, a steeper decline than experts had expected. In January, the JOLTS report had recorded 7.240 million job openings.

Hiring efforts also slumped in February, with 498,000 fewer people hired, for a total of 4.8 million people. That marks the lowest hiring level since March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/3/31/hiring-in-the-us-drops-to-pandemic-lows-as-job-market-under-trump-stagnates

[IronLionZion]

1. MAGA are such job creators

liberals are holding them back from greatness.

[progree]

2. 'Hiring was ice cold in February': US businesses last month added workers at the slowest pace since pandemic,

Yahoo Finance, 3/31/26

Yes, the above is the actual title. Anyway, just another article I ran across earlier today.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hiring-was-ice-cold-in-february-us-businesses-last-month-added-workers-at-the-slowest-pace-since-pandemic-142635046.html

February’s hiring rate, at 3.1%, clocked in at the worst pace since the early days of the pandemic and before that since 2011, Labor Department data released Tuesday showed.

US hires plunged to 4.8 million last month, down by 387,000 from a year ago, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“3.1% is not only comparable to the COVID low point - it’s also comparable to late 2009 and early 2010, when the unemployment rate was around 10%,” Guy Berger, director of economic research at the Burning Glass Institute, wrote on X. “Hiring was ice cold in February.”

Still, 6.9 million jobs were open last month, matching economists’ expectations while being a tick lower than January’s revised level of 7.2 million positions. January’s hiring rate was also revised higher to 3.4%, the strongest since last June.

“As with the January and February job reports, it’s a good idea to average out those 2 months’ JOLTS reports,” Berger said on X. “Hiring was stronger than recent trends in January; weaker than recent trends in February. A very tough time to find a job, but not suddenly getting even tougher.”

More...

[pat_k]

3. OMG. With Heritage "statistical charlatan" E.J. Antoni at the helm, you know the REAL numbers are FAR, FAR worse.

Add that to last year's budget cuts, loss of senior leaders and experienced staff, and disbanding of the Federal Statistics Advisory Committee (eliminating oversight).

If the terrible news is their best effort at making the job market look "good" I shudder to think what the reality is.

[progree]

4. E.J. Antoni is at what helm? His nomination was withdrawn last September

Google e.j. antoni nomination

William J. Wiatrowski is still the acting head of the BLS. He's had that position a number of times over the years.

Erika McEntarfer (fired former BLS Commissioner) "Person who was fired here - you should still trust BLS data." - The agency is being run by the same dedicated career staff who were running it while I was awaiting confirmation from the Senate. And the staff have made it clear that they are blowing a loud whistle if there is interference." https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3614986

[pat_k]

5. Glad to hear that was a dumb mistake on my part. But, despite what McEntarfer asserts, every executive agency has...

... suffered purges of expertise and unconstitutional DOGE budget cuts, so it is NOT being run by the "same dedicated career staff" and is NOT subject to the same oversight. Not to mention the infiltration of unregulated, unvetted, AI.

Sorry, but I don't trust anything that comes out of any of the felon's executive agencies.