Area employers continued to add workers to their payrolls in the first quarter, the state said yesterday, signaling that Pittsburgh is on track to post its second straight year of job gains and the best year for growth since 2000.

The seven-county region added an average of 11,200 jobs from January through March, up 1 percent from the year-ago pace, figures from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry show.

Last year, the region added an average of 3,300 nonfarm jobs, up 0.3 percent from the previous year and the first annual advance since payrolls rose 0.6 percent in 2001.

Labor department analyst Michele Heister called the latest trend encouraging. "Pittsburgh is showing signs of the recovery," she said.

Despite the job growth, the region's jobless rate -- determined from a separate measure of employment based on surveys of local households -- held steady at 4.8 percent in March as more job-seekers entered the job market. A year ago, the area jobless rate was 5.5 percent.

The year-over-year decline in unemployment came amid an expanding labor force, defined as people working or seeking work, indicating that "people in Pittsburgh are finding jobs," Ms. Heister said.

Some of the biggest gains in hiring this year were in construction, health services, retailing, and leisure and hospitality, the state said.

Overall, the outlook for the region's economy is heartening, according to the latest forecast by economists at PNC Financial Services Group.

"Pittsburgh's economic fortunes will improve at a steady pace through 2006," PNC said.