130,000 Jobs Created in March, But Unemployment Rate Creeps Up

Employers picked up the pace of hiring in America last month, boosting wages and helping to keep the five-year economic expansion intact as housing slumps.

The economy created 130,000 jobs in March, improving on a 97,000 gain the previous month, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The Labor Department's April 6 release is also forecast to show the unemployment rate edged up to 4.6% from 4.5%.

Employment gains are generating the income necessary to keep consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, from faltering. Spending increases are pivotal to the Federal Reserve's forecast of "moderate" growth.

"Consumer spending has been a main driver of this expansion, and we expect that to continue," a chief economist at Barclays Capital, Dean Maki, said.