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The U.S. economy shed 92,000 jobs in February, the  estimated March 6, falling far short of forecasters' expectations, and signaling the labor market is still in low-hire mode as employers navigate tariff-related inflation pressures, AI adoption, and geopolitical uncertainty.

The February estimate comes in much lower than the BLS’ now-revised gain of 126,000 jobs added in January, which was much higher than the agency’s revised figures for 2025, when U.S. employers added only 181,000 jobs throughout the entire year, or about 15,000 a month.

“The weak jobs report challenges the recent stabilization narrative and puts the Fed in a difficult position, especially as the spike in oil prices adds near‑term inflation pressure,” Angelo Kourkafas, Senior Global Strategist at Edward Jones, said in a note to USA TODAY, adding that economists should avoid over-extrapolating the trend given weather and labor disruptions' potential impact on hiring in February.

He added, “however, with global geopolitical uncertainty elevated, it is reasonable to expect that job growth may remain subdued in the months ahead.”

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The federal trade court judge overseeing the refund process for President Trump’s tariffs ordered the administration Wednesday to   paperwork for imported goods without charging companies for the invalidated levies.

The order from Richard Eaton, a senior judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade, is set to impact millions of tariff entries submitted to the government that were declared illegal by the Supreme Court’s blockbuster decision.

Companies won’t immediately receive money, but the order marks a milestone that moves the laborious process along.

More than 1,000 companies have sued for refunds, hoping the government will now return tens of billions of dollars following the much-anticipated decision. Eaton’s ruling came in the lawsuit filed by Atmus Filtration, but he said the trade court’s chief judge has put him in charge of all cases pertaining to refunds.

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Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is calling on the Trump administration to refund approximately $13.5 billion to New York residents after the Supreme Court ruled last week that the bulk of President Trump’s tariffs are unconstitutional. 

“These senseless and illegal tariffs were just a tax on New York consumers, small businesses and farmers — and that’s why I’m demanding a full refund,” Hochul, who is up for reelection this year, said in a statement Tuesday.

“I’ll never stop fighting for New Yorkers, and that means staying focused on putting more money back in your pockets — not ripping it away,” she added.

Her office cited Yale Budget Lab estimates that the average New York household shouldered an additional $1,751 in added costs as a result of the tariffs, totaling $13.5 billion for the state. 

The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision Friday, delivered a blistering ruling against the Trump administration, rejecting the president’s expanded use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs on nearly every country.

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John Paulson, a hedge fund billionaire and one of Donald Trump’s earliest Wall Street backers, is planning to offshore an Ohio manufacturing plant to China despite heavy pushback from employees.

Workers at the plant call the move “a slap in our face”, after Paulson vocally defended domestic manufacturing, and are fighting to keep the plant open.

Conn Selmer, the largest US manufacturer of brass and orchestra instruments, told the union it planned to offshore most work at its Eastlake, Ohio, plant to China by the end of June 2026, eliminating 150 jobs.

United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2359, which represents the 150 employees, said workers were informed of the closing when it first sat down to bargain over their new union contract last month.

“We came in with a full proposal, fully prepared to bargain, and they started off with a presentation of telling us how bad we were doing,” said Robert Hines, president of UAW Local 2359 and an employee at the plant. The company told them there would be no bargaining and the plant would be closing.

Workers say offshoring is an attack on the union, citing rhetoric that the plant has not been productive despite previous praise from company management.

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Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires from 24 countries are calling on global leaders to increase taxes on the super-rich, amid growing concern that the wealthiest in society are buying political influence.

An open letter, released to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, calls on global leaders attending this week’s conference to close the widening gap between the super-rich and everyone else.

The letter, signed by luminaries including the actor and film-maker Mark Ruffalo, the musician Brian Eno and the film producer and philanthropist Abigail Disney, says extreme wealth is polluting politics, driving social exclusion and fuelling the climate emergency.

"A handful of global oligarchs with extreme wealth have bought up our democracies; taken over our governments; gagged the freedom of our media; placed a stranglehold on technology and innovation; deepened poverty and social exclusion; and accelerated the breakdown of our planet,” it reads. “What we treasure, rich and poor alike, is being eaten away by those intent on growing the gulf between their vast power and everyone else.

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The job market continues to show signs of cooling.

U.S. employers added just 64,000 jobs in November, according to a delayed report from the Labor Department Tuesday, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.6% from 4.4% in September. That's the highest unemployment rate in more than four years.

The jobs report was initially set to come out earlier this month, but the government's ability to monitor the job market was hampered by the six-week federal shutdown.

https://www.npr.org/2025/12/16/nx-s1-5645023/jobs-employment-labor-marketThat delayed job tallies for October and November, both of which were released on Tuesday. The report showed the U.S. saw a net loss of 105,000 jobs in October. That was led by a large drop in the federal workforce, as 162,000 government workers who'd taken buyouts earlier in the year were officially dropped from the payrolls.

Furloughed federal workers were unable to conduct their usual survey of households in October, so the unemployment rate for that month remains unknown.

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