The job market’s thermometer is out of whack, with hiring hot and layoffs more frigid than ever. American employers slashed ~84.6K jobs last month — up 9% from a year ago — marking the toughest February since the Great Financial Crisis, as Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported.

• The technology sector took the biggest hit, with ~28K job cuts, although it’s a 55% improvement from last year’s tech layoffs.
• Financial firms followed closely behind, cutting ~26K jobs — showing a 56% increase in job losses in the sector compared to the first two months of 2023.

Job market update: Despite adding 275K jobs in February, the US unemployment rate reached a two-year high of 3.9% — indicating a durable but slightly cooler labor market. Sectors like government, education, and health drove about half of this growth. Ian Shepherdson from Pantheon Macroeconomics noted, “The current trend in payrolls is steady, but a clear downturn is coming.”