MW It's getting 'uncomfortably difficult' to find a job. Here are the bright spots in this labor market.

By Andrew Keshner

Why the latest report is giving job hunters the jitters: longer stretches of unemployment and more part-time work

Even before the release of Friday's employment report, the labor market was beginning to test the nerves of America's job hunters.

Now that the numbers are in, experts say there isn't much that will counter the queasiness for those who are looking for a job. In other words: Don't start chugging the Pepto-Bismol, but keep it handy.

"It remains uncomfortably difficult for unemployed people who want a job to quickly find one," said Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab.

The U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics - a decent showing, but slightly below the 170,000 jobs that had been expected by economists polled by the Wall Street Journal. The jobless rate ticked up to 4.1% from 4% the previous month. An even broader measure of unemployment that includes people with some marginal attachment to the workforce climbed to 8% from 7.5%.

That broader measure of unemployment reached its "highest level since October 2021, before the economy had fully recovered the jobs lost to the pandemic," Diane Swonk, chief economist and managing director at KPMG, said in a LinkedIn post.

Meanwhile, nearly 4.9 million people were doing part-time work "for economic reasons" last month, up from roughly 4.4 million people in January. "Economic reasons" could include inability to find full-time work and lighter demand from employers, the BLS said.

A worrying trend: the shrinking workweek

The duration of the average workweek remained at 34.1 hours, unchanged from January but slightly down from December and from February 2024.

Overall, the job numbers were "a bit of a snoozer," said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. But the contracting workweek is giving her pause, she added.

The 34.1-hour average is "a level rarely seen outside of recessions," Pollak noted. "That drop, combined with a rise in the number of workers forced into part-time jobs for economic reasons, suggests some employers are cutting back on hours rather than cutting jobs outright."

Meanwhile, job searches are taking longer. Last month, people were unemployed for a median of 10 weeks, up from nine weeks in February 2024. More people are experiencing stretches of unemployment lasting at least 27 weeks, according to the BLS.

The 27-week mark is important for many job hunters, because unemployment benefits in most states last up to 26 weeks.

More people are declaring they're 'open to work'

Hours after the job numbers came out, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reaffirmed the economy's murky outlook. Powell signaled that the central bank is ready to hold its benchmark interest rate steady until it has a better feel for where the economy is going.

Powell may be in wait-and-see mode, but workers and job seekers - and their wallets - are feeling the pressure now.

The white-hot, supertight job market that began during the pandemic is cooling. The old mojo is gone for now, according to a LinkedIn poll of worker confidence published on Thursday. The gauge of workers' confidence in finding or holding on to a job last month touched an all-time low since the survey's start in spring 2020.

There are now approximately 220 million LinkedIn users displaying the "open to work" banner on their profiles, a 35% increase year over year, according to LinkedIn analysts.

"The jobs report shows no major shift in momentum so far this year, as the job market continues to chug along in low gear across most industries," said Kory Kantenga, LinkedIn's head of economics for the Americas. "As a result, many job seekers continue to face a slow hiring market, resulting in the lowest levels of workforce confidence we have seen across LinkedIn - even lower than [during] the pandemic."

Where are job searches easy - and difficult?

None of this may be what recently fired federal workers want to hear. The Friday report showed a drop of 10,000 federal government jobs last month, and some say that may be an early glimpse of the Trump administration's cost-cutting moves.

Available jobs are highly dependent on the sector and industry. Most private-sector employers added jobs last month, but jobs in healthcare and social assistance accounted for almost half of those gains, according to Stahle at Indeed.

The social-assistance sector includes jobs like personal-care aides and child-care and social workers, he said. But these traditionally lower-paying jobs may be a tough sell for many job hunters.

Right now, hiring is still generally strongest in healthcare and in logistics and warehouse roles. Postings for tech jobs, particularly in marketing and data analytics, are below their pandemic levels, "despite signs of a turnaround," Stahle said.

Advice for job seekers: look horizontally

Employers in sectors including healthcare, aerospace and defense continue to invest in hiring, according to Adam Stafford, chief executive of Recruitics, which helps companies reach potential applicants. Federal workers with security clearances will have an inside track with aerospace and defense firms, he noted.

Federal workers with economics, mathematics and science in their background may also have a good chance of shifting to fields that use artificial-intelligence engineering, he noted.

Stafford sees tech hiring revving up, but it's a competitive field, he said. On the flip side, it's hard now for college-educated job seekers looking for positions in marketing and other creative fields.

Stafford advises those who feel stuck to remember that their experience in what may now be a slow sector can be of value elsewhere. For instance, hiring in retail is cautious right now, but in fast-casual dining it's strong. Those customer-service skills can cross over, he said. "Try to detach from the vertical mindset and look horizontally," he said.

Networking is critical, said Dawn Fay, operational president at Robert Half $(RHI)$, a staffing and recruiting firm. So is contract work, which can help job seekers build experience and contacts while giving them a chance to keep working.

Thinking broadly can pay off, she said. "Job seekers should also remain open-minded about opportunities in different industries or departments," Fay said. "Work to identify where certain skills and expertise can be applied, and it could open up new opportunities or career paths."

Related: Federal jobs went from reliable to risky overnight. Here's where Americans can find stable work now - and in the future.

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-Andrew Keshner

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March 07, 2025 17:21 ET (22:21 GMT)

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