job creation in the us lost momentum in january mainly because of the hit from extreme weather over the month data from the adp national employment report showed wednesday employment in the nonfarm private sector rose by 106000 in january down from a 253000 increase in december adp said decembers gain was upwardly revised from an initial estimate of 235000 economists polled by the wall street journal expected a gain of 190000 payrolls the slowdown in hiring was attributed to the impact of weatherrelated disruptions during the reference week said nela richardson chief economist at adp hiring was stronger during other weeks of the month in line with the strength we saw late last year she said the adp estimate is based on aggregated payroll data of more than 25 million us workers and is independent from the labor department official data the adp series can diverge considerably from the labor departments data small businesses lost 75000 jobs over the month this decline was more than offset by a 64000 employment increase in mediumsized businesses and a 128000 gain for large businesses the data showed by sector services providers drove hiring with 109000 new jobs 95000 of which were created in the leisure and hospitality sector goods producers shed on average 3000 jobs weighed by a 24000 loss in the construction sector annual wage growth stabilized at the beginning of the year at 73 according to the survey pay data is based on the salaries of almost 10 million individual employees over a 12month period the us labor department is expected to release its employment report friday economists polled by the wall street journal expect nonfarm payrolls to increase by 187000 in january and the unemployment rate is forecast to edge up to 36 from decembers 35