The American economy added an unexpectedly strong 290,000 jobs in April, while the unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent, the government said Friday.

Analysts had expected a gain of about 190,000 in the month.

With revisions on Friday, April was the fourth consecutive month that the economy added workers (a revised 230,000 jobs were added in March, instead of 162,000), the job market still has a long way to go before it can be counted on to provide a base for a sustained economic recovery. More than 15.3 million were unemployed last month.

Besides March, February was revised from a loss of 14,000 jobs to a gain of 39,000. With a January gain of 14,000, the cumulative increase came to 573,000 jobs in four months.

Private employers added 231,000 jobs in April. The federal government also added, including 66,000 temporary positions for the 2010 Census.

Despite the increase in jobs, the unemployment rate rose, mostly because the government said 195,000 workers re-entered the labor force after giving up on job hunting during the recession. When jobless people do not look for work, they are not counted in the official unemployment rate.

Average hourly earnings were flat and the number of people who had been unemployed for a long time expanded, he said. In April, 45.9 percent of unemployed people had been jobless for 27 weeks or more, a record high.

Still, Friday’s jobless data was the latest to contribute to a picture of a slowly improving economy, and analysts hoped the employment numbers would help to fuel the momentum of upturns in business confidence.

Recent economic data shows manufacturing picking up and government said that sector added 44,000 jobs in April. Since December, factory employment has risen by 101,000.

The overall economy has also continued to expand since last summer, reaching an inflation-adjusted annual rate of 3.2 percent in the last quarter. Retailers on Thursday reported a 0.5 percent increase in sales in April, and a 4.8 percent for the spring shopping season.

As of yet, however, the improvements have not ushered in a sustained hiring. Economists estimated that there would be continued growth, particularly in the “bright spots” of the healthcare, retail and manufacturing sectors.

Source: New York Times, 5/7/2010, Christine Hauser