February Jobs Report Much Weaker Than Expected

The Labor Department released its monthly hiring and unemployment figures for February on Friday morning showing only 20,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy last month.

Analysts had expected a gain of about 175,000.

It was the 101st straight month of job gains, but the weakest report since September 2017.

The unemployment rate adjusted downward to 3.8 percent from 4 percent in January.

The labor force participation rate held at 63.2 percent in February and has changed little over the year.