Arizona's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained steady last month at 5 percent as the number of people employed in the private sector grew by just 7,500, a bit slower than typical post-recession increases.

There continue to be significant gains in the construction industry, now up 5.7 percent over the same time a year earlier. But Doug Walls of the state's Office of Economic Opportunity, said it he doesn’t think they’ll ever be back to pre-recession levels of a decade ago.

"Just before the recession we did see very, very large increases in a very short period of time, which I would say didn't necessarily represent a sustainable level of growth for construction at that time," Walls said.

Another bright spot remains - the state's leisure and hospitality industry, which added 2,200 jobs in April, most of them in entertainment and recreation.

The bulk of the new private sector employment was in the Phoenix metro area which includes Maricopa and Pinal counties.