US Employment Declines by 17k in February

• Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) shows the economy lost approximately 16.6k jobs in February 2026. The loss was driven by Retail Trade and Leisure and Hospitality. Healthcare, Professional and Business Services and Financial Activities had positive job gains.
• Within these sectors, the employers with the largest declines were Amazon after the large layoff announcement in January as well as CVS in Retail, and Starbucks and McDonald’s in Leisure and Hospitality. On the positive side, the employers adding the largest number of jobs were PwC and HCL in Professional and Business Services and JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs in Financial services.
• Job openings continued to decline in February, led by declines in the Professional and Business Services, and Retail sectors, as the United States remains at the forefront of cooling global labor demand.

• Salaries from new job postings ticked down slightly in February, decreasing by 1.4% from January 2026. Sectors driving the decline were Leisure and Hospitality, Retail and Manufacturing.

Employment

Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) shows the economy lost 16.6k jobs in February 2026. The loss was driven by Retail Trade and Leisure and Hospitality. Healthcare, Professional and Business Services and Financial Activities had positive job gains.

Within these sectors, the employers with the largest declines were Amazon after the large layoff announcement in January as well as CVS in Retail, and Starbucks and McDonald’s in Leisure and Hospitality. On the positive side, the employers adding the largest number of jobs were HCA Healthcare and Kaiser Permanente in Health Care; PricewaterhouseCoopers and HCL in Professional and Business Services and JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs in Financial Activities.

The sectors adding and losing jobs look familiar from past months. This continues to widen the divide between relative strength in professional service industries and greater losses in blue collar jobs.

Layoff notices

We observe a decline in the number of employees notified with layoffs as part of WARN layoff notices in February. Layoff notices declined by ~35% (from 530 in January to 345 in February 2026). The number of employees notified with layoffs declined from ~40k employees in January to 22.7k in February.

The Manufacturing sector saw the largest number of employees notified of layoffs in February 2026, followed by the Financial Services sector, and Leisure and Hospitality. Within the Manufacturing sector, Whirlpool and Thor Industries contributed the largest share of layoffs.

Hiring & attrition

While the hiring rate continued to tick downward in February, attrition remained steady, leading to the decrease in net job creation. Some of the larger month-on-month slowdowns in hiring were seen in Public Administration, and Mining, Quarrying & Oil, and Professional and Business Services. Overall, the US labor market remains close to stall speed when it comes to hiring new workers.

Job postings

Labor demand continues to cool in the US, as the number of active job postings across the country ticked downwards again in February. Nearly all industries experienced a net decrease in job openings, with the largest declines in percentage terms occurring in the Transportation & Warehousing, Construction, and Public Administration.

Geographically, some of the largest declines in labor demand have occurred in northern states, with active postings dropping more than 20% year-over-year in both Dakotas, Maine, and Rhode Island.

Looking at the total volume of job openings, the Industries that were responsible for largest declines in headline labor demand from January to February were the Professional Business Services, Retail, and Manufacturing. Within these industries, major staffing firms, and retailers like Kohl’s and Home Depot saw some of the most significant declines.

Salaries from new job openings

Salaries from new job postings ticked down slightly in February, decreasing by 1.4% from January 2026. Sectors driving the decline were Leisure and Hospitality, Retail and Manufacturing. Within these sectors, Performance Food Group and Subway in Leisure and Hospitality, Costco and Casey’s General Store in Retail and Mondelez and Stryker in Manufacturing were among the companies with the largest month-over-month declines in salaries in new job postings. Financial Activities and Education saw slight increases in salaries from new job postings.

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