Washington ? New hiring slackened last month to the slowest pace since the fall, as retailers cut thousands of jobs. Manufacturers and other businesses boosted employment, though, and the national jobless rate held steady at 4.7 percent.

The latest snapshot, released Friday by the Labor Department, painted a mixed picture of the country’s employment climate and suggested the economy is heading for more moderate but still healthy growth, analysts said.

Employers boosted payrolls by just 138,000 in April. That was the smallest increase since October when businesses still reeling from the blows of the Gulf Coast hurricanes added only 37,000 jobs.