The U.S. economy added 428,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate held steady at 3.6 percent, the Department of Labor said Friday.

Economists had expected the economy to add 400,000 jobs and the unemployment rate to come in unchanged from the prior month at 3.6 percent. The range of forecasts by economists surveyed by Econoday was between a gain of 300,000 to a gain of 500,000.

The labor force participation rate unexpectedly declined to 62.2 percent from 62.4 percent.

Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 10 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $31.85 in April. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings are up 5.5 percent. In April, average hourly earnings of private sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 10 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $27.12. This represents a deceleration of wage gains from the 0.4 percent overall recorded in March, likely due to many of the jobs added in April being on the lower end of the wage scale.

The economy added jobs at a breakneck pace in the first three months of the year despite the economy contracting 1.4 percent. Employers brought on nearly 1.7 million new workers in the first quarter, an average of 562,000 a month. At the end of March, there were a record 11.5 million job openings and a record 4.5 million workers voluntarily left their jobs, usually a sign that they expect to easily find better-paying work elsewhere.

The jobs numbers for February and March were revised down. After the revisions, employment in February and March combined was 39,000 lower than previously reported.