U.S. employers created the most jobs in five months in July, but the jobless rate rose, leaving the impression intact that the economy is just muddling along.

The Labor Department said the economy added 163,000 jobs last month, far exceeding the 100,000 jobs that economists had expected. But the economy still is far from creating enough jobs to do much for the 12.8 million Americans who are out of work. And the unemployment rate edged up to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent in June, signaling that more Americans may have given up looking for work.

“Even with the better-than-expected payroll number, it’s not sufficiently big enough to change the big-picture view. The economy is growing but not at a satisfactory rate to bring down unemployment,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities.

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