document: Unemployment rate falls to two-year low WASHINGTON -- Employers continued creating new jobs at a steady pace in March , according to new data , driving the unemployment rate down a tick and confirming that the job-market recovery , while slow , remains underway . The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.8 percent last month , the lowest in two years and down from 8.9 percent the month before . That came as employers added 216,000 net jobs , higher than the revised 194,000 gain in February and above the 190,000 in new jobs that analysts had expected . The report hardly showed gangbuster job creation , but it confirms an ongoing economic expansion and the fact that employers are adding jobs at a pace that is likely to chip away at the nation 's yawning unemployment problem over time . The steady-as-she-goes report helps assuage fears that turmoil in the Middle East , higher fuel prices or other factors are steering the U.S. recovery off course , despite some uneven economic data recently . Financial markets reacted positively to the news : the Dow Jones industrial average rose 56.99 points , or 0.5 percent , to close at 12,376.72 . The Standard & Poor 's 500 index added 6.58 points to close at 1,332.41 . Following the fourth consecutive month of declines , the unemployment rate is a full percentage point lower than it was in November . And the three-month average pace of private-sector job growth reached its highest level since 2006 . '' `` The recovery in employment is here to stay , '' '' said Sung Won Sohn , an economist at California State University . A separate report Friday showed continued strong growth in the manufacturing sector , with the Institute for Supply Management 's index of activity at the nation 's factories edging down to 61.2 from 61.4 . Numbers above 50 indicate expansion . In the details of the Labor Department report , there was not much to love but plenty to like . The improvement in the unemployment rate was attributed to the 291,000 additional workers who described themselves as having a job , rather than people giving up their job searches out of frustration . A broader measure of unemployment -- which also captures discouraged people who have given up looking for work and those who are working part time but want a full-time job -- fell to 15.7 percent , from 15.9 percent . The length of the average workweek rose to 33.6 hours , from 33.5 , allowing those who already were working to take home more income -LRB- though in a less promising sign , average hourly earnings dropped -RRB- .
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