The US economy added 162,000 jobs in March, the most since the start of a recession more than two years ago but not enough to bring the unemployment rate down from 9.7 per cent, dpa cited the Labour Department as reporting today. 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 prop 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 March gains were the most in three years, yet came in lower than economists expected as a Bloomberg News survey predicted that 184,000 jobs would be added. US stock exchanges were closed for the Good Friday holiday, but stock futures climbed on the news. The world's largest economy lost more than 8 million jobs over the course of a deep recession that began in December 2007 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 per cent remains near a quarter-century high. Congress last month approved another 18- billion-dollar jobs stimulus package to aid the recovery. Officials pointed to a clear trend in the right direction: the first quarter of 2010 saw an average of 54,000 jobs added per month, compared to losses of 753,000 over the first three months of 2009. "At the same time that we welcome today's encouraging labour market news, it is obvious that the American labour market remains severely distressed," said Christina Romer, chair of the White House Concil of Economic Advisers. "Further targeted actions to spur private sector job creation are critically needed to ensure a more rapid, widespread recovery."
