Employers, in a springtime hiring burst, boosted payrolls by a sizable 211,000 in March and pushed the nation's unemployment rate down to 4.7 percent.
The latest snapshot, released by the Labor Department on Friday, suggested that an accelerating economic expansion is putting companies in the hiring mood, brightening prospects for job seekers.
Hiring gains were fairly widespread. Construction, financial activities, education and health care and government were among the sectors posting payroll gains. That help to blunt job losses in manufacturing and in the transportation industries.
The unemployment rate, which dropped from February's 4.8 percent, ended up matching January's jobless rate, which was the lowest in 4 1/2 years.
Employment was stronger in March than economists were expecting. Before the release of the report, they were forecasting a gain of 190,000 jobs and they said they believed the overall civilian jobless rate would hold steady.
On the jobs front, payroll gains in January and February turned out to be slightly less than previously reported but still suggest decent job growth. Employers added 154,000 jobs in January, versus the 170,000 estimated a month ago. In February, payrolls grew by 225,000, rather than the 243,000 previously reported.
Employees' average hourly earnings, meanwhile, were $16.49 in March, a modest 0.2 percent increase from February. Economists were forecasting a 0.3 percent increase.
The report also showed the average time that the 7 million unemployed spent searching for work in March was 16.9 weeks, down from 17.6 weeks in February.
The employment figures for March come against the backdrop of a rebounding economy. Analysts believe the economy emerged from an end- of-year funk and grew at an annual rate of 4.5 percent or higher in the just ended January-to-March quarter. The economy is expected to moderate in the current April-to-June quarter but still turn in a good performance.
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