MOSCOW, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Russia’s main barometers of economic health, such as employment, consumer demand and wages, all exceeded expectations in January, opening the door for economic recovery in 2021, data showed on Thursday. Russia’s commodity-dependent economy is on track to grow this year after shrinking 3.1% in 2020, its sharpest contraction in 11 years which, however, was smaller than expected. Economic growth and a recovery in living standards in Russia are a crucial issue for President Vladimir Putin and the United Russian ruling party. The latter is bracing for parliamentary elections in September amid massive street protests that rocked Russian streets earlier this year. The Federal Statistics Service, or Rosstat, said Russia’s jobless rate slipped to 5.8% in January from 5.9% in December, while analysts polled by Reuters had forecast unemployment of 6.0%. Retail sales, a barometer of consumer demand that is Russia’s main driver of economic growth, slipped 0.1% year-on-year in January versus expectations for a 3% drop predicted by a Reuters poll. Real wages, which are adjusted for inflation, rose 4.6% year-on-year in December, jumping 39.5% month-on-month, while analysts on average had forecast a 1.5% annual fall in the last month of 2020. Surprisingly optimistic figures from Russia’s statistics agency have alarmed some experts and investors in the past, raising concerns about data accuracy which Rosstat has always dismissed. In 2021, Russia’s economy was on track to grow by 3-4%, the central bank said last week, when it kept interest rates at a record low level and indicated it will start raising them in the foreseeable future. (Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh in Moscow Editing by Matthew Lewis)