Pasadena, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/08/2011 -- Private employers in America may have added up to 145,000 jobs in January.

A survey carried out by Reuters among economists shows that most of them estimate around 75,000 to 250,000 jobs to have been created. ADP’s figures have generally been a lot higher than the figure reported by the Labor Department. In December 2010, ADP reported a gain of 297,000 jobs but the Labor Department reported a gain of only 113,000 private sector jobs.

Most economists are also talking about the snowstorms having a negative effect on the jobs figure. Stephen Stanley, chief economist of Pierpont Securities says that because of the weather the numbers could go down by 20,000 to 30,000.

A survey from Fortune magazine says that the top 100 companies in the country have around 150,000 openings. The results are from its annual “100 Best Companies to Work For List”.

The figures given by Fortune are supported by the fact that the country has seen its lowest jobless rate in the last two years.

Consumer confidence is also at a 7-year high and 42% of companies are planning on hiring more workers in the next six months. This data is from the National Association of Business Economics.

A. Harrison Barnes, CEO of EmploymentCrossing, says “We have been able to get over 644,000 job postings from employer websites and other sources in the last seven days. Most of the openings are in small and medium sized companies all over the country.” EmploymentCrossing is a job aggregator website.