US economy live: Federal Reserve chief Jay Powell pushes back against US growth worries

US stocks dropped sharply on Friday and were on course for the worst week since 2022 after a disappointing jobs report reinforced concerns that Donald Trump’s tariffs are weighing on the world’s largest economy.

The US created 151,000 jobs in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, falling short of the 160,000 forecast by economists polled by Reuters. January’s reading was also revised lower by 18,000 to 125,000.

The unemployment rate was 4.1 per cent last month, compared with expectations it would hold steady at 4 per cent.

Wall Street’s S&P 500 dropped 1.1 per cent on Friday. It was down 4.6 per cent on the week, the worst performance since September 2022, according to FactSet data. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 1.5 per cent.

The jobs report caps a tumultuous week in which Trump roiled markets by imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico before a partial reprieve. Recent data has suggested that uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs has knocked manufacturing and consumer spending, both of which underpin US growth.

Federal government employment shrunk by 10,000 jobs in February, possibly reflecting an early impact of Trump’s effort to slash the federal workforce through Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The figure marks the largest reduction in federal employment since June 2022.