Job creation ground to a virtual halt in the US last month, the US government said today, a stinging blow to President Donald Trump's hopes for undiminished economic growth this year.
Job creation was the slowest since September 2017, and joins widespread reports from firms nationwide complaining that worker shortages are beginning to impede growth in their businesses.
The sudden collapse in hiring showed deep job cuts in the construction retail and transportation sectors and is sure to revive worries about the dwindling supply of American workers.
Despite that the US unemployment rate fell and hourly wages saw their biggest gains in nearly a decade, more evidence of the tight labour market.
US employers added just 20,000 net new positions for the month, only a fraction of what economists had been expecting.
US unemployment fell two tenths to 3.8%, its lowest level since October, according to the closely-watched Labor Department report.
Economists had been projecting a far stronger 173,000 gain. The decline in the unemployment rate may seem contradictory to the weak job creation, but the figure also reflects a shrinking labour force.
The data can produce the occasional blip due to weather or other one-off factors and these numbers are subject to revision.
Economists said the weakness may have been exaggerated after a big gain in the previous month or due to seasonal adjustment, meant to smooth out sharp swings due to weather or other expected elements.
But February marked a dizzying tumble from January's blow-out 311,000 net new positions - a number the White House had held out as a sign that robust economic growth would continue.
The hiring slowdown will be unwelcome news for Trump and is like to weigh heavily on first-quarter GDP calculations, threatening to take the bloom from the economy's rose in year's first quarter.
The US unemployment rate has been hovering 50-year lows since last year, with a hot economy's hunger for new employees seeming to turn up new pockets of available labor every month.
But the construction, retail, mining and transportation sectors shed a combined 45,000 positions while the education sector added only 4,000 workers, down from 64,000 the prior month.
No one was hired in February to work in the US leisure and hospitality sector, today's figures show.
Meanwhile, average hourly wages rose 11 cents for the month to $27.66, putting them up 3.4% over the same month last year - more than twice as fast as inflation.
That is an indication that at long last firms are being force to pay more to attract workers.
The data present a mixed bag for the US Federal Reserve, which has said it will hold off on additional rate increases amid signs economic growth is moderating and the absence of inflation.
But if wage gains pick up speed, it could fuel concerns of inflation hawks at the Fed.
The report was also unwelcome news to Wall Street, sending stock futures lower and setting up equities to continue losses in what has so far been their worst week of the year.
