This Could Be the Best Year on Record for Job Growth Gains to be driven by a re-emerging economy but won’t offset all pandemic losses A surge in job creation is predicted as the Covid-19 vaccine helps stir economic activity. Photo: Tony Dejak/Associated Press By Jan. 10, 2021 5:30 am ET The U.S. economy is poised to add more jobs this year than any other on records dating back to 1939—though the expected gain is unlikely to fully replace losses last spring, when the coronavirus pandemic first took hold. U.S. nonfarm payrolls will increase by 6.7 million by December 2021, from last month, according to data firm IHS Markit . Economic forecasting firm Oxford Economics predicts 5.8 million jobs. Economists at the University of Michigan forecast 5.3 million. All would put 2021 well ahead of the 4.3 million jobs created in 1946, at the start of the post-World War II expansion, for the best year on record. It would be much less in percentage terms, though, 5% versus 11% in 1946.