US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February • Hacker News Board

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#691

Post by dnemmers » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 12:15 AM UTC

gucci-on-fleek wrote: post #650

overfeed wrote: post #630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [...]even if it doesn’t accurately represent our people I beg to differ, seeing that the US had free and fair elections - media bias aside.

Most Canadians are visiting Hawaii and California, not Arkansas and South Dakota, so the point still stands for the states most people are going to. (Although Florida and Arizona are both pretty popular destinations too, which somewhat contradicts my point)

South Dakota actually has a few decent tourist attractions west river: (Mt Rushmore, Badlands, Crazy Horse).

With its proximity to Canada, and relative cheapness, likely pulls in quite a few tourists from up North.

One additional South Dakota attraction (although lessening interest as of late) is how much hunting/fishing is available, and how much the community is interested in the ‘visiting’ hunter.

https://sdvisit.com/sites/default/files/2026-01/2025-Economi...

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#692

Post by JohnMakin » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 12:18 AM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #424

JohnMakin wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is extremely lazy and unrigorous reasoning that could be extended dishonestly to any number of things. Oh, you aren't protesting genocides? You must support them then. Oh, you're not helping feed hungry people in poor countries? Guess you support child starvation. Oh, you're not contributing to the Rust ecosystem? ...............

None of those are comparable to the simple and quick act of voting against a treasonous candidate for US president. This wasn’t a bad candidate vs worse candidate situation, it was someone who supports breaking apart the trust and foundation of the country solely for personal gain versus someone who at least believed in providing a veneer of civility.

signing an online petition is also a quick act, and the same reasoning you’re using would follow. you’re almost getting at what’s wrong with your specific voter argument though - in many, many states, 1 or more of the following can apply:

big states that always vote one way like CA where a non vote is the same as a blue vote

states where voting is such a tedious process that opting out is a reasonable choice, even if it doesnt place a big burden otherwise

states with voter id laws, often large chunks of the eligible population do not have an id

disabled people, people with hardship, etc., felons

It’s really weird logic to lump massive chunks of the general population these things apply to in with the same people that explicitly support this. It also ignores the fact that these elections often come down to a few thousand or fewer votes in a handful of battleground states. Not voting in those places, I would tend to agree more with the gist of your point, but it is no where near a big chunk of the population.

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#693

Post by bitcurious » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 12:21 AM UTC

bdangubic wrote: post #547

bitcurious wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoy Dubai, but it’s is part of a state where showing a stranger the middle finger is punishable with jail and deportation, nevermind an expat criticism the emirs. It’s pretty telling to consider that safe but to be afraid of showing your passport to CBP.

All we gotta do is show passport to the CBP and that's it, we get in? All people avoiding travel to the USA are doing so because they have a bad photo in their passport? :)

Statistically, yes. Take a boogeyman from this thread - electronic device searches.

Less than 0.01% of travelers to the US have their electronics screened. A similarly small fraction of travelers get turned away at the border. It's remarkable how big of a story it is for how much of a non-story it is, especially when you consider the fact that similar laws exists in the UK, France, most of the Middle East, East Asia, and more. The only story here is that America is (regretfully) becoming more like the rest of the world.

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#694

Post by FireBeyond » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 12:46 AM UTC

irishcoffee wrote: post #308

Aurornis wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US tourism declined in 2025 but the number has been relatively flat since then. These recent job losses are probably not attributable to tourism since that’s unchanged year over year. I’m not saying tourism is not a factor or denying anecdotes about people not visiting the US, but I don’t think it’s the explanation for the February 2026 job losses.

> I’m not saying tourism is not a factor or denying anecdotes about people not visiting the US, but I don’t think it’s the explanation for the February 2026 job losses. This is accurate. This thread is people emoting. I get it, might as well let it out. Tourism being major part of the US GDP feels like countries whose GDP depends on tourism, projecting. I get that too, if that is the paradigm you live in every day, t…

Perhaps so. But also, the other thing is that this administration has been stalling on releasing monthly numbers on employment for several months now, either releasing them very late or even not at all.

If you believe the administration, it's been because BLS "has the wrong numbers" or that they need "interpretation" or "adjustment"...

... or it's because they've been garbage for a while now and trending in this direction because, shocking, I realize, maybe Trump isn't the economic mastermind he likes to cosplay as inside his head.

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#695

Post by UncleMeat » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 12:53 AM UTC

xhkkffbf wrote: post #312

Uncle_Brumpus wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had never vacationed abroad in my whole life, then last year I traveled separately to Amsterdam (with 2 nights in Groningen) and Paris. Both trips ended up being cheaper than similar domestic trips. Both times I was extremely sad to return home. I would love to emigrate to Europe. One of the nights in Amsterdam, I couldn't sleep and spent the night frantically researching how to legally emigrate.

That's a bit ironic. If all of the undocumented people in the US spent this much time trying to emigrate legally, the US wouldn't need ICE and we wouldn't be having this discussion.

ICE has been regularly picking people up at their asylum hearings and deporting them. That is precisely people trying to emigrate legally.

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#696

Post by prh8 » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 1:12 AM UTC

qwerpy wrote: post #675

prh8 wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People aren't leaving Seattle to save a small amount in taxes every year

I lived in the Seattle area and would be affected by some of these taxes. I moved to California recently. WA lost its tax advantage, so If I’m now going to be paying the same taxes, I might as well enjoy better weather and schools for my kids.

So, you _already_ moved, _for non tax reasons_

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#697

Post by fakedang » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 1:15 AM UTC

cheesecompiler wrote: post #29

testfrequency wrote: post #4

I do not see the tourism industry mentioned here but I have to imagine that is a huge loss right now. Most of the world is not visiting the US right now which means projects and planning that was made in anticipation for summer has probably been halted or heavily reduced.

There is a significant majority of people in Canada who not only vocally decided to not go to US but discourage their friends from doing so too. People have judged me for driving through the states.

I'm not Canadian, and I usually visit the US for business. While being a Muslim often means enduring the humiliation of being singled out because of my name by CBP, I'm comfortable enough that I could travel private for my US trips, which means the entire CBP experience is completely different (friendly chitchat and conversation as the CBP officers check our passports inside the aircraft itself). But with ICE roaming the streets, I'm not taking any chances of being deported to Libya or El Salvador or something. Which in turn means that we have severely halted all of our US investments, simply because I am unable to visit the country (!).

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#698

Post by fakedang » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 1:19 AM UTC

saalweachter wrote: post #609

badc0ffee wrote: post #602

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Museums and public art galleries are notably worse in Canada, honestly. But, I think there some unique things worth seeing for an American: The old parts of Montreal/Quebec city, and the Alberta Rockies, especially the corridor between Banff and Jasper.

Sure, yeah, but you say "Alberta Rockies" and I think "Ah, yes, because the US is notably lacking good scenic parks in the Rocky Mountains."

Banff is much better than Vail or Jackson Hole though. I would even say better than Tahoe, if not for the lake.

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#699

Post by Induane » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 1:27 AM UTC

dehrmann wrote: post #474

What are the current theories about why the perceived(?) healthy unemployment rate is lower post-covid? 4.4% is spectacularly good by historic standards. This has also been the slowest medium-term upswing in unemployment since WWII. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE I'd ignore the headline number and wonder what the longer term trend means because this isn't normal.

The unemployment rate is somewhat useful in aggregate but has a limitation in that it doesn't account for people who have given up seeking employment. Essentially it is a measure of the percentage of the workforce that has a job.

This stat makes a lot of sense for the most part. A stay-at-home parent isn't really unable to find work so shouldn't be counted in unemployment stats (for example).

But sometimes you miss the folk that have become disheartened. I know a few of those folk right now in the tech industry who want to look but just aren't. Our stats miss "mood" in a sense (hard to quantify of course).

But right now the mood is bad.

Re: US economy unexpectedly sheds 92k jobs in February

#700

Post by YZF » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 1:28 AM UTC

rapind wrote: post #391

YZF wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We did not travel to the US during Trump's first presidency either. That said, I do think some people are doing things for the wrong reasons and there is some manipulation of the masses at play here. One example is I expect most people don't really understand the tariff situation between Canada and the US and that most goods are still exempt from taxes and the agreements hold. I think some people want to punish the U…

> I think some people want to punish the US for tariffs that don't exist. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the Gestapo. What a lovely time to be a foreigner travelling in the US...

Believe it or not but there are some Canadians still going to the US.

Gestapo is ... bullshit and FUD.

Yes, we see the news about ICE.

https://www.bts.gov/newsroom/border-crossing-data-annual-rel...

In 2025 there were about 18M personal vehicles and about 300K pedestrians crossed from Canada into the US. So yes, it's down (like 10%) but it's still a lot of people. Out of those the number of people that run into problems with the "Gestapo" is approximately, within rounding error, zero. You're a lot more likely to die in a car crash or get robbed or something.

Why does everything today have to be about hyperbole? You don't want to visit the US (like me) ... well don't. You don't like Trump ... fine. You disagree with the immigration policies, enforcement whatnot... fine. But enough with this bullshit fear mongering.