Jobs report may reveal if recovery is a mirage

In early July, the Pew Research Center released a

WASHINGTON — U.S. job growth grew modestly in January and gains in the prior two months were bigger than initially reported, supporting views the economy’s sluggish recovery was on track despite a surprise contraction in output in the final three months of 2012. Employers added 157,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. There were 127,000 more jobs created in November and December than previously reported. The unemployment rate, however, edged up 0.1 percentage point to 7.9%.

ADP reports: Employment in the nonfarm private business sector rose 38,000 from April to May on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report® released today. The estimated change of employment from March 2011 to April 2011 was revised down slightly to 177,000 from the previously reported increase of 179,000....

Here's an index of the latest articles discussing the jobs report released at 8:30 am ET on January 7, 2011.

Sean Hannon submits: As first outlined in EPIC Insights, all eyes will be on the monthly employment report third Friday. The ADP report had a loss of 22,000 jobs for January making it the smallest drop since February 2008. This has encouraged the bulls to forecast that January will show job growth with 15,000 jobs being added and the unemployment rate holding steady at 10%.

The US economy lost 85,000 jobs in December while the unemployment rate held at 10.0 percent, the government said Friday in a report dashing hopes of a turnaround in the ailing labor market.The Labor Department report on nonfarm payrolls was a disappointment to those hoping for growth in jobs, which is critical to recovery from recession.The figure was far worse than the consensus expectation for no change in overall employment levels, and came amid a wide array of predictions ranging from steep losses to modest gains.