By Leigh Strope
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - U.S. employers hired almost a quarter-million new workers in May, swelling payrolls by about 1.2 million for the year in a job market steadily gaining steam.

The nation's unemployment rate held steady at 5.6 percent as more jobless workers renewed their searches and re-entered the labor pool, the Labor Department said Friday.

May's payroll increase of 248,000 was on top of revised employment figures for March and April showing 74,000 more jobs were added than previously reported.

"These blowout numbers so far this year are the convincing evidence that the economic recovery is here to stay," said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo & Co. in Minneapolis.

Hiring last month was widespread, with the biggest gains in construction, health care, professional and business services, and hotels and restaurants. The manufacturing sector also is reawakening, adding 32,000 jobs.

In Cincinnati, marketing communications firm Freedman Gibson & White hired three new staffers last month to replace employees who left and to fill new positions, said Tim Gibson, a partner.

"We've been hiring in the media department, client services and public relations. ... It's often after the economy picks up that we find business picks up.''

One of the three hires, Megan Licursi, 27, said, "Over the past couple of months, I noticed there are quite a few more openings in the public relations area."

May's numbers were better than analysts expected, and cemented predictions of the first interest-rate increase in four years when the Federal Reserve next meets June 29.

Enquirer reporter John Eckberg contributed.