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US economy sheds 92,000 jobs in February in sharp slide
- WalterGR 8mo agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47275035 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47275035 US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February (bbc.com) 524 points | 23 hours ago | 733 comments
- wood_spirit 8mo agoDiscussion yesterday https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47275035 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47275035
- alkyon 8mo agoAlready discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47275035 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47275035
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- 9dev 8mo ago[flagged]
- Imustaskforhelp 8mo agoDoublespeak, am I right? :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak
- SkipperCat 8mo agoI'd call it dummerspeak...
- 9dev 8mo agoAssuming a single of his utterances carries deeper meaning would give him too much praise.
- nabbed 8mo agoHonestly, I thought you were quoting an SNL skit, but now I see this quote in a transcript from his 2026 state of the union speech. That being said, over my lifetime I've heard many TV talking heads, people I assume are much more well informed than me, claim that presidents don't really have that much to do with the state of the economy, despite the levers they pull, and it's all a matter of timing whether they reap the benefits of a good economy or get pummelled for a bad economy. That doesn't stop them from taking credit when things are good (or pretending that things are great with things are actually pretty meh).
- righthand 8mo agoArguably never has their been a Potus willing to destroy the economy. Potus can pull levers to try and boost the economy which is more or less at the whim of everyone else participating. That is the truth that was being referred to before. Now we have a Potus bent on destroying it so the levers he pulls are actually effecting the economy in ways. But he still doesn’t control it.
- adammarples 8mo agoPresidents don't. That's because presidents don't unilaterally dictate trade policy, or start wars, or micromanage immigration policy. Congress is supposed to do the work of running the country. However, this president has side stepped all the usual ways that the US runs under the guise of "emergency" powers.
- rayiner 8mo agoThe ungameable statistic is the native born labor force participation rate, which also ticked down: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNU01373413 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNU01373413. Unfortunately, that figure never recovered from the pandemic. It also never recovered from a major drop after the 2008 recession.
- onlyrealcuzzo 8mo agoAs the population continues to age, and more people are 62+, this is expected...
- idiotsecant 8mo agoLook at that trajectory one more time and tell me how 'expected' it is. The first stages of a worldwide recession is what it looks like to me.
- gilbetron 8mo agohttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=1T9dv&height=490 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=1T9dv&heig... There are way more retired people as a percentage.
- idiotsecant 8mo agoI need you to very carefully consider the x axis of those 2 plots. Think about it real hard.
- gilbetron 8mo agoOk, and?
- djohnston 8mo agoI don’t think that’s telling the whole story. Immigration has always been used as leverage against the native workers, and now it’s more efficiently corrupt than ever.
- dgellow 8mo agoI understand the US economy is experiencing some… troubled times. However, 4.4% unemployment rate, while that’s an increase, sounds really low compared to other countries. Am I missing something?
- sbochins 8mo agoYou’re absolutely right. The labor market is still quite strong. All the doom and gloom from places like HN is coming from the many layoff announcements and fear of AI.
- Madmallard 8mo agoOr the reality, which is that the numbers are royally fudged and the statistic is a farce.
- alephnerd 8mo agoIt's not that numbers are a farce but different industry segments are doing better or worse than other. HN being a tech forum that now increasingly skews East and Midwest (heck, it's not even 7am yet in the West, but look at the degree of engagement on here) means most HNers are impacted by a slowdown in tech hiring, which exacerbates the sense of pessimism. And tbf, if you aren't working in a tech hub like the Bay or NYC, you are going to be screwed if you are laid off - employers increasingly restrict remote work to those employees who have proven internal track records, and inshoring hubs like in RTP, Denver, Atlanta, etc are on the chopping block.
- butterbomb 8mo ago> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47277727 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47277727 None of those are tech
- dgellow 8mo agoI didn’t say the market is strong
- IgorPartola 8mo agoSo two factors that affected this report: 1. Kaiser Permanente healthcare strike sidelined 28,000 workers. The strike ended on February 23rd. 2. The severe weather resulting in two major snow storms made it so that lots of businesses were simply closed for a few days. This meant they couldn’t be properly surveyed. It still is not good, but the magnitude of how not good is worsened by specific one-time circumstances. Make of that what you will. I can’t see the FT article but this one. Talks a bit about these circumstances: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/06/february-2026-jobs-report.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/06/february-2026-jobs-report.ht...
- alephnerd 8mo agoThe FT article brings it up as well - most HNers never read the articles.
- righthand 8mo agoDoes that matter if the headline is conclusive of the article result? Financial Times is a costly subscription. Furthermore those details, while interesting, do not change the outcome of the article.
- g947o 8mo agoMost HNers don't have access to the article. Not sure why this source was used. There are plenty of other sources that are more accessible/available (that are already shared and discussed here).
- IgorPartola 8mo agoTo be fair FT is a fantastic source. That’s why it costs as much as it does. But yeah the paywall sucks if you just want the one article.
- s5300 8mo ago[dead]
- tyzerdako 8mo ago[dead]
- vlod 8mo agohttps://archive.is/RP83s https://archive.is/RP83s
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]