New York: The US may have gained jobs in January for the second time in three months as the world's largest economy began 2010 on firmer footing, economists said before reports this week.

Payrolls probably rose by 13,000 workers this month, according to the median forecast of 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before the Labour Department's February 5 report. The unemployment rate may have held at 10 per cent for the third consecutive month.

The fastest pace of econ-omic growth in six years in last quarter may give rise to more employment gains as companies restock shelves and invest in new equipment. While the US will probably take years to recover the 7.2 million jobs lost since the recession began at the end of 2007, additional hiring would be welcome news to President Barack Obama, who said job creation will be his top priority in 2010.

"It's still quite feeble job growth," said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York, who forecast a 25,000 gain in payrolls. "We do think the trend will be toward greater job creation."

Oracle Corp and General Electric Co are among companies looking to hire.

Payrolls fell by 85,000 last month after a 4,000 gain in November that was the first increase in almost two years. The US economy expanded in the fourth quarter at a 5.7 per cent annual rate, exceeding the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and the best performance since the third quarter of 2003, figures from Commerce Department last week showed. The jobless rate held at 10 per cent in December, restrained by a drop in the labour force as the number of discouraged workers climbed, figures from the Labour Department on January 8 showed.

Employment creation

The unemployment rate is forecast to average 10 per cent this year, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed this month. Obama last week said job creation will be the "number one focus in 2010". Speaking during his first State of the Union address, he called on Congress to deliver a new jobs bill to his desk.

January marks the one-year anniversary of the country's biggest single-month employment plunge in six decades, showing the economic expansion that began in last year's third quarter has slowed the pace of job cuts. The US lost 741,000 jobs last January, according to Labour Department figures.

Oracle, completing the acquisition of Sun Microsystems, will hire 2,000 salespeople, President Charles Phillips said on Wednesday. He said the hiring of new employees, who will sell Sun's products directly to Oracle's biggest customers, will start immediately. General Electric is hiring workers in energy, health care and rail transportation in part because global economic-stimulus policies have created demand, two executives said last week.