US economy adds meager 49K jobs in rebound from COVID-fueled loss

The US economy added just 49,000 jobs in January as the labor market tried to rebound from the latest wave of coronavirus lockdowns, the feds said Friday.

The weaker-than-expected payroll growth came after employers shed 227,000 jobs in December amid a deadly wave of COVID-19 infections, marking the first loss in eight months. 

The unemployment rate, meanwhile, fell to 6.3 percent from December’s 6.7 percent as the nation’s workforce shrank by 406,000 people, according to the closely watched Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

While the job market once again appears to be trudging uphill instead of down, there’s still a long way to go — the economy has only recovered about 12 million of the 22 million jobs it lost when the pandemic hit last spring, federal data show.

“On the whole it seemed like things were pretty stable, but obviously that’s a problem when you’re still 10 million jobs below where you started this whole thing,” Curt Long, chief economist and vice president of research at the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions, told The Post.

“It definitely shows that COVID still has teeth.”

Professional and business services firms drove January’s gains by adding 97,000 jobs overall, 81,000 of which came from temporary-help services companies, the feds said.

But industries hit hard by restrictions aimed at controlling the recent surge in coronavirus infections suffered last month. Retailers shed 38,000 jobs after a gain in December, while amusements, gambling and recreation lost 27,000, restaurants and bars dropped 19,000 and hotels cut 18,000, the figures show.

“I think it reinforces just the K-shape of our economic recovery, where those that are employed in service industry, especially hospitality, continue to face significant job loss, while the number of jobs that are available in growth sectors, specifically technology, continue to increase,” Karen Fichuk, CEO of recruitment and staffing firm Randstad North America, told The Post.

Racial and gender disparities also persisted. January’s unemployment rate was 9.2 percent for black Americans and 8.6 percent for Hispanic workers, compared with 5.7 percent for white people, according to the feds. And the number of adult women in the labor force decreased by 275,000 versus a drop of 71,000 for adult men, the data show.

The latest figures came as President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package wound its way through Congress. The bill would deliver another round of direct payments to Americans and provide other support for the economy as officials roll out COVID-19 vaccines.

“It is reasonable to expect accelerating hiring gains in the coming months as COVID-19 vaccinations gain traction, restrictions are lifted, consumers are more enthusiastic and able to spend and as science is victorious over the pandemic,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst for Bankrate. “Whether that improvement is seen as soon as next month remains to be seen.”