Name: Stock market falls as disappointing jobs report emerges
Uploaded: 2026-03-07T23:02:25.000Z
Duration: 4 min 32 s
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Let's see how the markets are doing right now.

Dow is down several hundred points yesterday and again today because of that weaker than expected jobs report.

The US unexpectedly lost 92,000 jobs in February and unemployment ticked up to 4.4%.

I want to bring in Wall Street Journal economics reporter Harriet Tory.

So let's talk about the sectors that were hit the hardest by the job losses.

What are the factors driving why these industries are cutting so many jobs?

Well, this was pretty much across the board.

I mean, we saw nearly every major sector cutting jobs in February, which was a surprise because one of the big sectors that has been really driving growth over the past year in the US Economy is health care.

And we saw a decline in health care jobs in February.

Now, that was maybe partly due to a strike at Kaiser Permanente Nursing.

We did see the labor market report mentioned that there had been strike action.

And there was, there was really weakness in, you know, across the board in most of the private sector, which is definitely a worrying sign.

You know, we had this strong report in January, and

I think there was a lot of hope that the labor market, that hiring might be turning a bit of a corner, you know, New year, new hiring ambitions.

But, you know, the February report really, really puts that into question.

It is, it is, it is pretty bad across the board.

Put it into perspective for us, Harriet, because if we were expecting job growth and then we're seeing, you know, such a big negative, what do you think happened?

I mean, this, it seems like this is a week where a lot of things came together.

Of course, we saw the, you know, the situation in Iran, pushing up oil prices, pushing up gasoline prices in the US but at the same time, you know, there are some factors that could come into play in February.

And of course, there has been a government shutdown in recent months.

There is a chance that maybe weather played a role.

Maybe, you know, we had some harsher weather in February.

This, this doesn't necessarily trend, but

it definitely points to just a weak, weak hiring intentions among, among employers.

There seems to be a great deal of uncertainty about, you know, the outlook for the economy and people.

You know, of course, payroll headcount is a huge cost for most companies.

So seems like people are just in a very hesitant hiring holding pattern.

I mean, how does the war factor into all of this?

I mean, what can we expect over the course of the next quarter, given that the President now is suggesting, and

I'm sure the markets are factoring this in, because this is sort of breaking news, the President suggesting that only what he calls unconditional surrender of the Iranians is what will lead to an end of the war.

Well, we have no idea when that could possibly be.

So how does that play into what we're looking at here?

I mean, of course, it is very early, early days.

You know, the action in Iran really only kicked off on the weekend, and today is Friday.

So it really depends on the, you know, the duration and the magnitude of this.

Of course, and, you know, the impact that we might see in the US Is going to initially show up in gasoline prices.

We have already seen that, you know, gasoline prices ticking higher across the nation over the course of this week.

And the concern when it comes to gasoline prices is this.

Now, of course, inflation has been the Fed's number one priority for the best part of about five years because we saw this huge inflationary surge in the aftermath of the COVID 19 pandemic.

You know, households really struggling with the.

With the cost of everything from rent to groceries.

And it's been a very hard few years trying to bring inflation down.

And, you know, the Fed hasn't even got to its target yet, but

we're already seeing, you know, this potential for higher gas prices that could feed through not only to people's pocketbooks when they're at the gas station, but, of course, if gas prices are higher, that makes it more expensive, for instance, to ship food around and trucks.

So you might see a filter effect in grocery prices.

You might see more expensive airline tickets.

Now, these, this could be a blip if we, you know, if we don't see a long, prolonged confrontation in Iran.

Perhaps this is just, you know, a couple of weeks of higher gas prices and it washes out of inflation very quickly.

The concern is if this news that, you know, we could see these inflation numbers start to tick up month over month, that combined with a weak labor market, that does put the Fed in a very difficult position.

Harriet, Tory, thank you so much for all that analysis.

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Stock market falls as disappointing jobs report emerges

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