Washington ? America’s employers added a sizable 262,000 jobs in February — the most in four months. The new hiring, however, wasn’t sufficiently brisk to accommodate a wave of job seekers, and the overall unemployment rate rose to 5.4 percent.

The latest snapshot of the country’s employment climate, released Friday by the Labor Department, showed job gains across a range of industries — from manufacturing and construction to retail and business services.

The report suggested that the labor market continues to be on the mend, but it still hasn’t reached full health, analysts said.

“Indicators are showing some improvement in the labor market situation but we are nowhere near where we need to be,” said Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics.

The gain of 262,000 jobs in February was stronger than the increase of 225,000 positions that economists were forecasting before the release of the employment report. Payroll growth in February was up from January’s sluggish gain of 132,000, which was less than the 146,000 increase initially reported.

The rise in the overall civilian unemployment rate to 5.4 percent in February was up from 5.2 percent in January. The increase last month came in part as more jobseekers streamed back into the market.

The unemployment rate is calculated from a separate statistical survey than the payroll figures. Thus, they can offer somewhat different pictures of what is happening in the labor market.

President Bush welcomed the jobs report.

“The economy’s getting better. Today we got some good news. We added 262,000 new jobs last month,” Bush said to cheers from an audience of supporters in Westfield, N.J.

Economists believe the economy in the January-to-March quarter is growing at a rate of around 4 percent, which would be a sufficient pace to spur solid job creation.

In February, the nation’s manufacturers added 20,000 positions. Employment growth in factories came after five previous months of job losses. Employment gains in the manufacturing of motor vehicles and parts accounted for about half of the gain, the government said.

The construction sector added 30,000 positions in February, after being flat in January as bad weather took its toll on employment.

Retailers also boosted payrolls by 30,000 last month, up from a gain of around 6,000 in the previous month.