DOGE Blitz Doesn’t Quite Hit Jobs Report
Welcome back to the Recruitonomics Newsletter! This week, we’re looking at the latest jobs report in the U.S. The labor market was once again resilient in February, adding 151,000 net new jobs. ?
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This Week on Recruitonomics:??
Despite DOGE Blitz, Hiring Continues to Tick?
The first two months of President Trump’s new administration have been a whirlwind of policy changes. The flip-flopping tariff policy has created economic uncertainty, and the Department of Government Efficiency has chipped away at the federal workforce. But the labor market is, as ever in this post-pandemic world, resilient. In February, the U.S. economy added 151,000 net new jobs and the unemployment rate barely increased to 4.1%. This report indicates two things: First, the labor market is growing at an incredibly steady rate, shrugging off short-term uncertainty. And though hiring is still healthcare-heavy, other sectors like transportation, construction, and information have all seen growth in recent months. Second, DOGE’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce are materializing in the data. Federal Government employment fell by 10,000 last month, the largest one-month drop since mid-2022. The full impact of this initiative will take many months to unfold in the data, but this is the first sign of what’s to come.?
Read the full article here.?
What does this mean for recruiters???
While the labor market has shifted from tight to balanced, new recruiting challenges have emerged. Businesses may begin to push back their 2025 hiring plans in response to shifts in economic policy and consumers may raise their outlook on inflation in the future, all impacting the recruiting funnel. Despite this, in the short term the labor market continues to grow at a healthy pace.? ?
Recruitonomics Review: Video Insights
Watch Andrew Flowers' takeaways from this morning's jobs report here:
Recruiting Tips:??
Are you hiring in the manufacturing sector? A new infographic from Appcast dives into the state of hiring in the manufacturing sector, derived from key metrics in the 2025 Recruitment Marketing Benchmark Report. From cost-per-application to cost-per-hire, find the data you need to measure your company’s hiring success. Then, download the full report for more insights on geography and comparisons between sectors. ?
Recently on Recruitonomics:?
Ongoing and Worse Than We Thought: The White-Collar Downturn
Within our coverage of last month's jobs report, we mentioned there were substantial revisions to last year's employment figures. But these revisions weren’t exactly distributed evenly. In fact, they mostly ate away at job growth within white-collar sectors we’ve already had our eyes on, like professional and business services and information. January’s revisions showed the white-collar downturn of 2024 was worse than originally thought. It wasn’t just confined to decreased vacancies and job openings; it was impacting job growth as well. What was once stagnation was in fact declines in the technology sector, confirming that net job losses occurred in 2024 along with 2023. Both the finance and professional and business services sectors grew far more slowly than originally believed. In short, there is a significant disparity between pre-revision and post-revision data in the white-collar space, which explains the stark difference between the dour mood in those professions and last year’s data.???
Read the full article here.?
What Recruitonomics is Reading:??
Inflation has been moderating over the last few years, down from 9.1% in 2022 to 3% at the start of 2025. Despite this uplifting news, inflation fears have creeped back into the national subconscious. Last month, the New York Federal Reserve asked regional businesses about future inflation expectations, and what they discovered is discomforting. Manufacturing businesses in the New York and Northern New Jersey area put their year-ahead inflation expectations at 3.5%, while service firms expect inflation at 4%. For context, year-ahead expectations last year were at 3%. The question is whether these inflation expectations are temporary, prompted by questions about tariffs, or more permanent.?
More Data & Insights:?
Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for next week's Recruitonomics Newsletter and check out Recruitonomics.com for more data-driven insights.?