Quartz – The topline number — 63,000 private-sector payroll jobs added in February, for the best showing since July 2025 — “appears, at first, to be good news. But glancing even just a few lines down the report changes the story and brings something alarming into view, with the ADP table showing that professional and business services shed 30,000 jobs last month. This is the category encompassing lawyers, consultants, accountants, marketers, and administrative positions — a broad swathe of the white-collar knowledge economy, at least within this type of reporting. The headline number appears positive only because education and health services added 58,000 positions, a category driven by health care hiring that is only distantly related to trends in more elastic sectors and that, in large part, reflects growing health care demand caused by an aging population. Construction also added 19,000 jobs, helping obscure losses in other areas; experts say the growth of data centers is driving the mini-boom in the sector even as AI buildout spending may be a negative indicator for white-collar demand. What’s more, the same report reveals that January’s already-weak job numbers have been revised from 22,000 down to 11,000. This means ADP’s job numbers are worse than initial reporting has portrayed in recent times, and it roughly follows trends of downward revision in government statistics over the past year. ADP’s own chief economist pointed out the worrying details emerging just below the headline numbers. “We’ve seen an increase in hiring and pay gains remain solid, especially for job-stayers,” said Dr. Nela Richardson, in the release. “But with hiring concentrated in only a few sectors, our data shows no widespread pay benefit from changing jobs. In fact, the pay premium for switching employers hit a record low in February.”…

Geek Wire: “Amazon is laying off an undisclosed number of employees from its robotics division. Business Insider first reported the news, and the company confirmed the cuts in a statement to GeekWire. “We regularly review our organizations to make sure teams are best set up to innovate and deliver for our customers,” a company spokesperson said. “Following a recent review, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a relatively small number of robotics roles. We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we’re committed to supporting employees whose roles are affected with severance pay, health insurance benefits, and job placement support.” The layoffs are separate from Amazon’s broader cuts announced in January that impacted more than 16,000 corporate workers — the second phase in a restructuring that totals 30,000 positions, the largest workforce reduction in the company’s history. In a memo to employees in January, Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, said the company did not plan to make regular rounds of massive cuts. “Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm — where we announce broad reductions every few months,” she wrote. “That’s not our plan.”