WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The private sector in the United States unexpectedly destroyed jobs in January, the first since December 2020, due to the wave of COVID-19 infections linked to the spread of the Omicron variant, shows on Wednesday the monthly survey by the ADP firm.
These destructions amounted to 301,000 last month while economists polled by Reuters predicted an average of 207,000 job creations.
On Wall Street, index futures, which point to a higher open, pared gains slightly after the release of this indicator.
The figures for the month of December have been revised downwards, with 776,000 job creations against 807,000 initially announced.
“The labor market recovery suffered a setback in early 2022 due to the effect of the Omicron variant and this significant impact, while likely temporary, is affecting employment growth,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, quoted in the survey.
According to a U.S. Census Bureau survey, released in mid-January, 8.8 million people said they weren’t at work for COVID-19-related reasons between Dec. 29 and Jan. 10.
The ADP survey, conducted in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics, is published two days before the Department of Labor’s monthly report on the employment situation in the United States.
The Reuters consensus gives 150,000 non-agricultural job creations in January after 199,000 in December.
(Report Lucia Mutikani; French version Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)
Copyright © 2022 Thomson Reuters