Economy
The delayed January jobs report will be released Wednesday. Here's what to expect

Published Tue, Feb 10 2026 3:02 PM EST
Updated Tue, Feb 10 2026 3:52 PM EST
Jeff Cox
@JeffCoxCNBCcom
@jeff.cox.7528

KEY POINTS
• Economists expect that January's nonfarm payrolls report should show growth that was nil or not much better during the month.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics also will report its final benchmark revisions for payrolls going back 12 months from March 2025. That could erase most of the gains for the period.
• Even White House officials have been spending time this week trying to tamp down expectations.

The jobs report Wednesday will give markets a lot to consider, as investors parse through fresh data and a batch of revisions.

Economists expect that January's nonfarm payrolls report will show growth that was nil or not much better during the month. On top of that, annual revisions also could reveal that the U.S. economy going back to early 2024 had generated few if any net jobs, casting further doubt on the health of the labor market.

"I think zero would be the forecast," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "The consensus is probably around 50,000. Anything around zero just shows you how fragile things are, just very weak. This is all happening with no layoffs, but layoffs are going to pick up. I think we could get job losses here pretty soon."

The payrolls report will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. It was delayed five days due to the brief government shutdown.

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