Coming Week: Jobs on Tap

Updated from 05/01/10
Updated to include Greek bailout agreement.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The coming week signals the beginning of a new month, which means the government's monthly jobs report will be front and center once again, even as questions about the eurozone and Goldman Sachs(GS) continue to percolate.

It's clear the labor market is, well, laboring. The nation's unemployment rate, which held steady at 9.7% last month, is more than double prerecession levels. And if you calculate part-timers looking for full-time work and those who gave up looking for work all together out of frustration, the rate actually stands at a whopping 16.9%.

But the Commerce Department said nonfarm payrolls popped convincingly higher in March, as employers added 162,000 jobs.

Just how far have we come? Exactly one year before, employers shed a jaw-dropping 753,000 jobs in a single month.

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The March climb was led, in part, by a jump in temporary and Census hiring. Market observers are expecting much of the same in the April report, due out Friday at 8:30 a.m. EDT, but hope to see more growth in sustainable, long-term, full-time, private-sector hiring. In other words, the market is looking for confirmation the March bounce wasn't a blip, but rather the beginning of a larger trend.

"We expect to see private payrolls increasing 85,000, which is, I think, consistent with a further firming in that series," said Mike Feroli, economist at JPMorgan, who's projecting a net gain of 145,000 in April with roughly no change in the unemployment rate. "So, I think we'll see private payrolls expand, probably led, once again, by temp help hiring. I think manufacturing will continue to add jobs."

Fed watchers are also keeping close tabs on jobs. There's a feeling the Federal Open Market Committee is waiting for robust growth and more confidence to coalesce around the jobs market before raising rates. Observers will get another crack at reading the Fed tea leaves on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. EDT when Chairman Ben Bernanke gives a speech on bank stress testing in Chicago.

But wobbly headline risk from Greece and Goldman may also cloud the beginning of the coming week.

On Sunday Greece secured a 110 billion euro (or approximately $147 billion) rescue package from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, the first such bailout of a eurozone nation.

In exchange for loans, Greece will institute tough austerity measures, including salary and pension cuts for public-sector employees and tax hikes, in an effort to reduce its crippling deficit.

But some observers are skeptical that the loan package from the EU and IMF will be enough.