WASHINGTON (AP) – Steady economic growth and consumer spending likely led U.S. employers to hire at a healthy pace in January and extend last year’s solid job gains.
Economists have forecast that the economy gained 230,000 jobs in January, according to a survey by FactSet. The unemployment rate is expected to stay at a six-year low of 5.6 percent.
The January jobs report will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.
The predicted job gain would mark the 12th straight month above 200,000, the longest such stretch since 1994. And hiring has intensified recently: Job growth has averaged 264,000 a month in the past six months, up from an average of 194,000 during 2013.
But faster hiring has yet to lift Americans’ wages much. Average hourly earnings rose just 1.7 percent in December compared with 12 months earlier. That was barely ahead of the 1.3 percent increase in inflation, according to the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure, which excludes the volatile categories of food and gas.