The job market is flip flopping like a fish. Following an optimistic January jobs report, the labor market lost 92,000 jobs in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest employment situation report. While experts cautioned that one month of job losses should not be taken as gospel about the state of the labor market, it follows a broader trend of uncertainty creating whiplash between job growth and losses in the US.

Diving into the data. Since May, the US labor market has flipped between adding and losing jobs each month. February lost 92,000 jobs, January added 126,000, December lost 17,000, and so on.

“It feels like we’re getting a whiplash from flip flopping back and forth between job gains and job losses,” Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor’s chief economist, told HR Brew. If employers were hoping for some brevity from a chaotic 2025, they may be out of luck. “If we think back to 2025 the theme of the year was quite clearly uncertainty, and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s changing so far into 2026.”

Zoom out. Despite February’s job losses, the overall picture depicts “a job market that is flattening, rather than falling off a cliff,” Zhao said.

For more on what HR needs to know about the jobs report, keep reading here.—PM

The Middle East is home to over 500million people, and industries from tech to oil. Since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran began on Feb. 28, some employers and governments have sought to ensure the safety of their employees in the region, which includes 17 countries.

The UAE labor minister asked private employers to allow remote work through Mar. 3. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is largely operating as “business as usual,” a recruiting consultant in the country told AGBI on Mar. 2. “We’re all talking about the situation, but going on as normal.”

Still, many employers headquartered outside the region have asked their Middle East-based workers to stay home until the conflict is resolved.

For more on how employers are grappling with the war in the Middle East, keep reading here.—KP

Big news from enterprise software giant SAP this week, as the company announced a new integration between its core HR product, SAP SuccessFactors, and SmartRecruiters, an AI-powered ATS platform the company acquired last September.

The Wednesday announcement is the latest effort by SAP to integrate that ATS into its broader HCM suite. SAP’s integration helps unify hiring workflows, HR data, and AI tools like its copilot, Joule, with SmartRecruiters’ Winston, connecting talent architecture, hiring decisions, skills intelligence, and workforce planning into one system, according to the company.

HR departments and recruiting teams are navigating the challenges that come with widespread enterprise AI adoption. Fragmented systems, complicated workflows, and incongruent data can impede the promise of AI-powered productivity. These systems, after all, are only as good as the data powering them.

For more on SAP’s new platform, and how it fits into the greater HR tech landscape, keep reading here.—AD