Hiring may have rebounded from 1st monthly loss since April

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. jobs report for January being released Friday is expected to show a slight rebound after six straight months of weaker hiring. But any gain might have resulted mainly from a technical adjustment and would make little dent in the vast unemployment caused by the pandemic recession.

Economists have forecast that employers added 100,000 jobs last month, according to data provider FactSet. That would mark a welcome reversal from a loss in December — the first since April — of 140,000. Still, a gain of that modest size is practically negligible when the economy is nearly 10 million jobs short of its pre-pandemic level.

The unemployment rate is projected to remain stuck at 6.7% for a third straight month, almost twice its pre-pandemic level.

The tepid employment figures reflect a weak job market, slowed by a still-widespread viral pandemic that is causing consumers to avoid traveling, shopping, dining out, attending entertainment venues and engaging in other forms of face-to-face contact. At the same time, many states and localities re-imposed restrictions on businesses as cases spiked in December. Some of those restrictions were loosened last month, though not necessarily in time to affect the jobs report, which measures employment in the middle of each month.

As hiring has slowed, many employers have continued to lay off workers. The number of applications for unemployment benefits, though declining for the past few weeks, remained at an elevated 779,000 last week.

Those trends are fueling President Joe Biden's push for a $1.9 trillion stimulus package, which would provide $1,400 checks for most U.S. individuals and a $400 weekly unemployment payment on top of state benefits. It would also extend two federal jobless aid programs, from mid-March through September.

The reason why a gain in...