Monthly Job Losses Could Top 500,000 Again

CNBC.com
Friday, Feb 6, 2009

With news of fresh layoffs creeping into the markets every day, investors are bracing for another bad nonfarm payrolls report Friday, which could bring the total job losses of the past two months to more than 1 million.

And the numbers are not likely to get better until the second half of the year, analysts said.

Nonfarm payrolls likely dropped by 525,000 in January, according to economists surveyed by ThomsonReuters. Those polled by Briefing.com predicted a drop of 540,000, on average.

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And there are a number of predictions much higher. Analysts at ING, who still maintain their view that "we could at some point see 1 million payrolls decline," predict a plunge of 750,000 in January.

The unemployement rate is expected to rise to 7.5 percent from 7.2 percent in December. Average hourly earnings are expected to rise 0.2 percent.

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