The re-hired 45,000 Verizon employees who returned to work from a recent strike made up a big chunk of the 103,000 nonfarm jobs added to the economy in September, according to a new U.S. Dept. of Labor report. The federal government also says the unemployment rate is still 9.1 percent; it's been stuck there the past three months.

These job expansion numbers are above the 56,000 jobs economists predicted would be added in September.

Specifically, job gains specifically were seen in professional and business services, health care, and construction. Manufacturing employment changed little (13,000 jobs were lost), and "has been essentially flat for the past two months," noted the report.

About 34,000 government jobs were cut, too. The Post Office let loose 5,000 workers, and local governments shed 24,000 teachers and other workers. Within retail trade, electronic and appliance stores lost 9,000 workers. However, employment in wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, and leisure and hospitality "changed little."

The Labor department also revised August's figures to show a gain of 57,000 jobs, up from a previous estimate of zero. July's figures were revised, too, revealing 127,000 jobs-up from 85,000 as initially reported.

Almost 4.5 million Americans-representing one-third of the nation's jobless citizens--have been unemployed for more than year.