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Here’s where the jobs are for February 2025 – in one chart

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1 month ago

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Getty Images | CNBC | Getty Images

February marked another strong month for health care despite job growth overall coming in weaker than expected but stable.

Last month, health care and social assistance led the way for job creation, adding 63,100 jobs, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That marked the fifth straight month that the category saw the largest gains.

When including private education in the group, like some economists do, that figure grows to 73,000 jobs.

Although this is another strong performance for health care, Julia Pollak of ZipRecruiter noted that this level of gains has basically been happening over the last couple of years.

“Part of it is catch-up growth during the pandemic, when many hospitals’ profit margins were negative because of the cancellation of elective procedures,” the firm’s chief economist said in an interview with CNBC. “They didn’t do the hiring that they would’ve otherwise done, and now they’re back to normal and hiring pretty rapidly.”

Evolving demographic trends are another factor at play, Pollak said. She pointed out that the so-called “Peak 65 zone” – a multiyear period when more Americans are set to turn 65 than ever before – is underway.

“Some of it is catchup, and some of it’s just the sort of huge demographic shifts that we’re undergoing,” Pollak continued.

Financial activities and construction were next in line in terms of job growth. Those two categories saw 21,000 and 19,000 positions added, respectively.

Government also saw growth of 11,000 positions during the month. That said, the BLS revealed that within the sector, federal jobs declined by 10,000. That comes amid efforts by President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to axe spending and workforce levels in the federal government.

“The job gains will be much smaller [and] the job losses will be much bigger in the coming reports,” Pollak said, adding that the reduction of 10,000 probably reflects some fraction of the probationary employees who were laid off. “This was still early days.”

In terms of weak spots, retail trade as well as leisure and hospitality were the two groups to see job losses in February. Retail trade lost 6,300 jobs, while leisure and hospitality lost 16,000.

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Economics

Trump’s triple-digit tariff essentially cuts off most trade with China, says economist

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8 hours ago

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April 10, 2025

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U.S. President Donald Trump attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 10, 2025.

Nathan Howard | Reuters

President Donald Trump’s tariff increase on imports from China would basically end most trade between that country and the U.S., according to economist Erica York.

“It depends on how narrowly the tariff is applied or how broadly it’s applied, but generally if you get north of a triple-digit tariff, you are cutting off most trade,” the vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation’s Center for Federal Tax Policy said on CNBC’s “The Exchange” on Thursday. “There may still be some things without any substitutes that companies just have to foot the bill, but for the most part, that cuts it off.”

Her remarks came amid the market wiping out some of its monster gains seen on Wednesday. The market accelerated declines on Thursday once a White House official confirmed to CNBC that the U.S. tariff rate on Chinese goods now stands at 145%. That total includes the recent hike to 125% from 84% that Trump announced Wednesday as well as a 20% fentanyl-related duty that the president had previously put into effect.

On Wednesday, Trump announced that he’s temporarily reducing the tariff rates on imports from most countries, except China, to 10% for 90 days. In a Cabinet meeting Thursday, the president declined to rule out the possibility of extending the 90-day tariff reprieve.

Taking into account the China tariffs, the baseline 10% levies still in place and other sector tariffs, Trump has still taken the country into its most protectionist stance in decades, even with the pause.

“It’ll take the average tariff rate still to highs that we haven’t seen since the 1940s, so this is major,” the economist added. “It’s huge cost increases. It’s an economic hit. It’s clearly not setting us on a very good path.”

The Tax Foundation estimates that all of the new Trump tariffs will lead to an increase in federal tax revenues of $171.6 billion for this year. That would make Trump’s tariffs the biggest tax increase since 1993, more than the hikes under both former presidents George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama, the institution revealed.

China has said it won’t flinch if trade dynamics were to escalate into a trade war. Just hours prior to Trump’s tariff pause announcement, China raised its retaliatory levies on U.S. imports to 84% from 34%, which went into effect Thursday.

Even with Trump’s reversal, York stressed that the market isn’t in the clear just yet, saying “it’s not like the threat went away entirely.”

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Trump’s tariff blitz faces strong legal challenges

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13 hours ago

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April 10, 2025

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WITH MARKETS gyrating from the tariffs Donald Trump has imposed on around 180 countries, only to pause some of the most punishing ones on April 9th, a conservative organisation has filed a lawsuit challenging an initial round of tariffs the president announced on Chinese imports in February, duties he has since escalated. The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), which counts Charles Koch, a right-wing billionaire, among its supporters, argues that the president lacked the authority to impose these levies. With Chinese goods still a prime target, the case retains its salience. Similar lawsuits against other tariffs could yet scuttle the boldest—and most destabilising—move of Mr Trump’s second term.

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Donald Trump wants to deport foreign students merely for what they say

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14 hours ago

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April 10, 2025

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“EVERY TIME I find one of these lunatics I take away their visa.” That is how Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, last month described the Trump administration’s push to deport foreign university students who had participated in campus activism. Mr Rubio initially suggested that his department had cancelled at least 300 visas. That number increasingly looks out of date as the deportation campaign has spread beyond elite east-coast schools and for conduct beyond protest and speech. More than 100 students in California alone have had their visas yanked—some of them seemingly for infractions as minor as a speeding ticket.

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