The nation's jobless rate in April held at 7 percent for the third straight month as service industries added large numbers of new workers but building and manufacturing employment fell, the government said Friday.
The Labor Department said in its monthly report that the number of new jobs throughout the economy, as measured by a survey of business payrolls, rose by 119,000, following a revised decline of 9,000 jobs in March. The report said 8.92 million people were unemployed in April.The jobless rate of 7 percent, which has not changed since it fell 0.1 point in February, and the overall increase in new jobs, was in line with economists' expectations. It reflected a moderate improvement, officials said Friday.
Although the economy has added an average of more than 100,000 new jobs a month so far this year, total employment remains about 1 million short of the pre-recession peak in June 1990, when the economy was providing jobs for 110 million people.