began, the pandemic retains a tight grip on
the economy.
Still, most economists expect a relatively quick
rebound in hiring, possibly as soon as this
month. Nationally, reported omicron infections
are tumbling. And many businesses are still
desperate to hire: The number of job openings
in late December reached nearly 11 million, just
below a record set in July.
“Investors, policymakers and firm managers
should essentially just write off the (January
jobs) report as a one-time set of noise that will
not alter the underlying strong trend in hiring
and the tight labor market,” said Joe Brusuelas,
chief economist at RSM, a tax advisory firm.
Economists have collectively forecast that the
government will report a slight gain of 175,000
jobs for January. But some analysts, including
those at Goldman Sachs, Oxford Economics
and PNC Financial, have said they expect the
report to show a loss of up to several hundred
thousand positions.
Last month, a survey by the Census Bureau
found that nearly 8.8 million people didn’t
work in early January because they were
either sick with COVID-19 or had to care for
someone who was. That was more than triple
the corresponding number in early December.
A majority of those workers likely benefit
from employer-paid sick leave, and their
staying home would not have affected the
job count.
But about one-fifth of workers — particularly
lower-paid service employees, who are most
likely to contract the virus — have no paid leave.
If they missed a full pay period for sickness,