Workspan Daily News Bytes for March 6, 2026

U.S. Lost 92,000 Jobs in February, Far Below Expectations

Data released Friday, March 6, by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics conveyed an increasingly complex, cloudy and conflicted American employment picture.

The report covering February showed U.S. employers shed 92,000 more jobs than they gained, a letdown over expectations. Analysts had predicted a roughly 60,000-job gain for the month following an increase of 126,000 in January. The unemployment rate remained at 4.4%.

Looking at employment by industry:

Healthcare employment declined by 28,000 in February, following a large increase in January (+77,000). Offices of physicians lost 37,000 jobs in February, primarily due to strike activity. Hospitals added 12,000 jobs. Over the prior 12 months, healthcare had added an average of 36,000 jobs per month.
The information sector continued to trend down (-11,000). The industry had lost an average of 5,000 jobs per month over the prior 12 months.
Federal government employment continued to decline (-10,000). Since reaching a peak in October 2024, federal government employment is down by 330,000, or 11.0%.
Social assistance continued its upward trend in February (+9,000), driven by individual and family services (+12,000).
Transportation and warehousing changed little in February (-11,000). A job loss in couriers and messengers (-17,000) was partially offset by a gain in air transportation (+5,000). Employment in transportation and warehousing has declined by 157,000, or 2.4%, since reaching a peak in February 2025.
The status changed little in other major industries, including mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; construction; manufacturing; wholesale trade; retail trade; financial activities; professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; and other services.

Looking at unemployment:

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.0%), adult women (4.1%), teenagers (14.9%), and people who are White (3.7%), Black (7.7%), Asian (4.8%) or Hispanic (5.2%) showed little or no change.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) changed little at 1.9 million but is up from 1.5 million a year earlier. The long-term unemployed accounted for 25.3% of all unemployed people in February.

Looking at hours and wages:

Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 15 cents, or 0.4%, to $37.32. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.8%. In February, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 9 cents, or 0.3%, to $32.03.
The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.3 hours. In manufacturing, the average workweek edged down by 0.1 hour to 40.1 hours, and overtime was unchanged at 3.0 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 33.8 hours.

Challenger: 48,307 U.S. Job Cuts Announced in February

U.S.-based employers announced 48,307 job cuts in February, down 55% from the 108,435 job cuts in January. It is down 72% from the 172,017 cuts announced during the same month last year, according to a report released Thursday, March 5, from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Through February, employers announced 156,742 job cuts, the lowest January-to-February total since 2022, when 34,309 cuts were recorded in the first two months of the year. It is the fifth-highest January-February total since 2009.

“February’s dip is a nice reprieve from the elevated job cut plans to start the year. With U.S. involvement in a growing war in Iran, the end of Q1 may bring more layoff plans as companies tighten belts amid uncertainty and higher costs,” said Andy Challenger, the chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Closings led all reasons for job cuts last month, with 10,736 announced. Market and economic conditions followed with 10,114 cuts. Restructuring was cited for 9,146 job cuts, while cost-cutting accounted for 5,636 planned layoffs. Artificial intelligence (AI) was cited for 4,680 job cuts in February, approximately 10% of total cuts for the month. So far in 2026, AI has been cited for 12,304 job cut announcements, or 8% of job cut plans.

Private-Sector Hiring Sees Best Showing Since July 2025; Pay Up 4.5%

U.S. private-sector employers added 63,000 jobs in February, while pay was up 4.5% year-over-year, according to data released Wednesday, March 4, by payroll processing firm ADP.

“We’ve seen an increase in hiring and pay gains remain solid, especially for job-stayers,” said ADP chief economist Nela Richardson. “But with hiring concentrated in only a few sectors, our data shows no widespread pay benefit from changing jobs. In fact, the pay premium for switching employers hit a record low in February.”

The monthly total was the best showing for job gains since July 2025. The education/health services sector (+58,000) and construction sector (+19,000) led the growth.

Meanwhile, job losses were reported in professional/business services (-30,000), manufacturing (-5,000) and trade/transportation/utilities (-1,000).

Pay growth for job-stayers was unchanged in February at 4.5% year-over-year. For job-changers, annualized pay growth slowed to 6.3%.

Financial services had the largest median annual pay bump for job-stayers, at 5.2%. Information services and “other services” were at the bottom of the list, at 4.0% and 4.1%, respectively.

AI-Driven Compensation Can Be a Draw for Many Job Seekers

Sixty-seven percent of U.S. employees are more likely to accept a job at an organization that uses AI in pay decisions, according to a new report by career website Resume Now.

For job seekers, AI in compensation signals market benchmarking and an attempt to reduce favoritism, said Keith Spencer, a career expert at Resume Now.

“The biggest gains come when employers explain how AI informs offers and where human oversight applies,” he wrote in his analysis. “With clear criteria, manager review and an appeals path, candidates can compare offers with more confidence and negotiate specifics such as pay bands, location adjustments and bonus rules.”

Other key findings from the report include:

96% of surveyed employees would support AI in compensation if it guaranteed competitive, market-based pay.
90% said they are at least somewhat comfortable with AI influencing pay.
42% would allow AI to decide up to 25% of their total compensation; 39% would allow up to half.
34% now trust machines more than people to decide pay and bonuses.

A Sensitive Issue: Managers Score Below Average on Empathy

New research from career website Zety and SIGMA Assessment Systems revealed managers scored lower than the general population across the “emotional” cluster, which measured emotional sensitivity through empathy, anxiety and cooperativeness subscales.

Using SIGMA’s Jackson Personality Inventory-Revised (JPI-R) assessments across more than 4,000 managers, the data showed where managers scored below the general population (50th percentile) across all traits. These include:

Empathy: 27th to 39th percentile
Anxiety: 21st to 29th percentile
Cooperativeness: 33rd to 47th percentile

Men tended to score lower than women on measures of emotional sensitivity, with some sectors being more male-dominated. While managers in the most people-oriented industries scored the highest in emotional sensitivity, they still remained below the population average, even after accounting for gender.

Sectors with the highest emotional sensitivity are:

Health/medicine
Human resources

Sectors with the lowest emotional sensitivity are:

Wholesale/retail trade
Construction

“Managers’ lower scores on the JPI-R emotional cluster point to a leadership style characterized by composure, independence and lower stress reactivity, rather than traditional models of empathetic leadership,” said Jasmine Escalera, a career expert at Zety. “In fast-paced environments, these traits support decisive action and reduce the need for broad consensus when quick judgment is required.”

Figures and Facts of the Week

$985,000: The amount in U.S. dollars Hard Rock Cafe International Inc. will pay to resolve a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) collective lawsuit alleging it underpaid its servers, bartenders and other tipped employees.
4,000: The number of employees financial technology company Block announced it was letting go on Friday, Feb. 27. Block CEO Jack Dorsey named AI as a key driver behind the move, stating the job cuts will add to Block’s profitability and efficiency.
79: The percentage of U.S. workers who said they’re more likely to accept a new job than they were a year ago, according to FlexJobs’ 2026 State of the Workplace Report. The employment website’s report also found among surveyed professionals, 66% have changed or considered changing career fields in the past year, and 41% report they’ve recently quit or are considering quitting their job.
35: The percentage of U.S. and United Kingdom organizations that reported having a mature AI upskilling program for all employees, according to a State of Data and AI Literacy in 2026 report by online learning platform DataCamp.
35: The average age where working women start seeing most of their earnings stall, according to a 2026 Beyond the Gap report from employment review website Glassdoor. The report noted the within-role difference is mostly flat during this period, so the difference reflects that men are more likely to advance into new roles with higher pay.
15: The percentage of U.S. adults who had a combination of high-deductible health plan (HDHP) coverage and a health savings account (HSA) or health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) in 2025, according to new survey data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research. That figure is down from 18% in 2024.
8: The percentage of surveyed workers who said they clearly understood their employer’s AI vision, according to the 2026 State of Performance Enablement report from performance management software company Betterworks.

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