If you count the people that the Gov’t doesn’t count, true unemployment is closer to 18%…see U.S. Unemployment Government Statistics Hiding the Dismal Truth

Source: Reuters

U.S. non-farm payroll are estimated to have shed more than half a million jobs in January after losing a similar number in December as employers, fearing the impact of a weak economy on sales and profits, shrank their work forces to cut costs.

A poll of 82 economists by Reuters produced a median estimate of 525,000 jobs lost in January after 524,000 jobs were shed from non-farm payrolls in December. Estimates of January job losses ranged from 400,000 to 780,000.

Manufacturing payrolls were estimated to have lost 139,000 jobs, an unsurprising figure given gloomy readings on regional and nationwide manufacturing indexes.

Average hourly earnings were estimated to have risen a slight 0.2 percent after rising just 0.3 percent in December.

U.S. Labor Department data is due at 8:30 a.m. EST on Friday.

A sampling of forecasts and analysis on the upcoming employment data follows:

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