Official figures show that US employment grew at the fastest pace in four years in April as private sector employers picked up the pace of hiring. Employers added 290,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department said. It revised figures for February and March to show 121,000 more jobs were added than previously thought. The unemployment rate, however, rose to 9.9% as the size of the labour force increased. Employment has now grown for four months in a row. Analysts had expected a rise of 200,000 jobs last month, but they had expected the jobless rate to remain unchanged at 9.7%. Private sector employment increased 231,000, also the largest gain since March 2006, after rising 174,000 in March. Hiring for the US census contributed 66,000 jobs. Stubbornly high unemployment has been a political sore spot for President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats, even though the job market appears to be slowly on the mend. About 8.2 million jobs were lost during the recession and economists warn it is likely to take years to regain that lost employment. Last month, manufacturing employment increased 44,000 after rising 19,000 in March. Construction employment gained 14,000, rising for a second month and defying expectations of a fall. Employment in the service sector increased 166,000, advancing for a third month.