Andy Decker, CEO of national recruiting firm Goodwin Recruiting, had an interview with the Associated Press early last week. The conversation took place just before the February jobs report came out, and he shared his feedback on what we were seeing on the ground in recruiting. In a LinkedIn post, Decker noted:

“At the time, things looked hopeful: it appeared businesses were finally moving back into growth mode after a year of adjusting to an increased cost of doing business and some long standing indicators such as staffing hours and demand in some sectors were starting to pick up.

When I was asked about the impact of tariffs in 2025 I shared that businesses needed the year to try and bake those costs into their business model, and I was hopeful that it was time to get back to growth mode.

For some perspective on the current employment situation, the U.S. had been at what is considered full employment, meaning as many open jobs as unemployed people, dating back to December of 2017, with record hiring and nearly 400,000 jobs added per month during the post-pandemic rebound. Even now, there are over 6.5 million open jobs, and though that is down nearly 50% from the high of 12 million open in March of 2022, we are still seeing strong demand for talent.

Then came February, and it surprised a lot of people. Economists were expecting 50–60k new jobs, but instead the economy lost 92,000 positions. Manufacturing and construction softened, wiping out some of the gains we had seen.

Even so, we’re still seeing some encouraging signs: staffing activity compared to prior years, and hiring in certain sectors are all early indicators of where growth could bounce back.

The big takeaway? Progress is uneven, but companies that plan carefully and stay strategic about hiring will be ready to seize opportunities when growth picks up again.”

ANDY DECKER: Businesses needed “a year to bake some of those costs into their business model, and now it’s time to get back to growth mode,” said Andy Decker, CEO of Atlanta-based Goodwin Recruiting.

You can read the full news article at: U.S. lost 92,000 jobs last month and unemployment rate rises to 4.4%