By DPA,
Washington : The US economy added 162,000 jobs in March, the most since the start of a recession more than two years ago, but the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent, the Labour Department said Friday.
The improvement included gains in manufacturing and construction sectors that have been hardest hit by the economic crisis. Temporary government hiring for the 2010 population census also helped push up the figures.
Unemployment numbers were also revised upwards for the first two months of the year by a total of 62,000. Under the revisions, the economy added 14,000 jobs in January and lost 14,000 in February.
The world’s largest economy lost more than 8 million jobs over the course of a deep recession that began in December 2009, and the labour market has continued to sputter even as growth begins to return.
President Barack Obama’s administration is under pressure to do more to reduce the unemployment rate, which at 9.7 percent remains near a quarter-century high.
The March gains were the most in three years, yet came in lower than economists expected. A Bloomberg News survey predicted that 184,000 jobs would be added on.