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U.S. job openings fell, and hiring slowed to the weakest since 2020 in February, pointing to cooler labor demand before the war in Iran.

“You can’t sugarcoat this report,” said Brian Jacobsen of Annex Wealth Management. “A negative payrolls number combined with a big jump in oil prices will have traders worrying about stagflation risks.”

The job market had been expected to rebound this year from a lackluster 2025 when the economy, buffeted by President Donald Trump's erratic tariff policies, generated just 15,000 jobs a month.

U.S. companies added the most jobs since November last month — 63,000 — adding to evidence of some stabilization in the labor market.

The report included major revisions that reduced the number of jobs created last year to just 181,000, less than half the previously reported 584,000 and the weakest since the pandemic year of 2020.

The report on Feb. 5 also showed hiring intentions slid 13% from a year earlier to 5,306 — marking the weakest total for any January in the firm’s records back to 2009.

Employers added just 50,000 jobs last month, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Jan. 9. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%.

Transportation and warehousing employment fell by 8,000 jobs in November and is down 78,000 jobs since its February peak, according to the BLS Employment Situation report for November.

The number of federal employees who left their jobs in 2025 will total about 317,000 after efforts by Elon Musk and the Trump administration to reshape the government workforce.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.4% in September, the highest since October 2021 and up from 4.3% in August, the Labor Department said Nov. 20 in a delayed report.