Jobs report updates: What to expect after last month's surprisingly robust job surge

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It's jobs Friday, and we're about to learn if the labor market's "deep freeze" continued to thaw in February.

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Economists expect the US added 55,000 jobs and the unemployment rate held steady at at a fairly low 4.3%. Last month's report showed a surprisingly strong job gain in January, but revisions to last year's data meant 2025 as a whole saw the weakest growth outside a recession in over 20 years.

We'll be watching to see if the job market keeps heating up, or if January's strength was just a blip.

Check here for updates as we gear up for the report at 8:30 ET, when we'll break down all the details you need to know.

What we learned from the last jobs report

The US beat job growth expectations, adding 130,000 jobs in January, with the healthcare sector accounting for almost two-thirds of that. The report also unveiled revised data for 2025; it turns out the economy only added 181,000 jobs, way softer than the 584,000 previously reported.

That marks the lowest annual job growth since 2003, outside the deep recessions following the 2008 financial crisis and 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate ticked down in January from 4.4% to 4.3%.

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