California continued its economic recovery as the unemployment rate dipped to 10.1 percent in October, led by increases in private sector jobs such as construction, retail and well-paying professional work.

The state added 48,500 nonfarm jobs last month compared with September and the jobless rate dipped a tenth of a percent in one month, according to the California Employment Development Department.

About 14.4 million people were working.

"The private sector is adding a healthy number of jobs," department spokesman Kevin Callori said. "Definitely some good trends (are) being seen."

The department also sharply revised previous figures, showing that California gained 32,000 jobs in September instead of 8,500.

California's jobless rate has fallen 1.4 percent since October of last year as the state added 295,300 nonfarm jobs.

Overall, California continues an economic turnaround that began in February 2010. The state has gained nearly 575,000 jobs since then, Callori said.

It was the 16th consecutive month of private job growth.

Construction added 4,100 jobs in October and some 27,700 jobs over 12 months.

"Compared to recession years, that's very good because we were losing many, many jobs each month," Callori said.

The category of trade, transportation and utilities gained the largest monthly increase, adding 24,700 jobs.

Also leading job growth were the sectors of manufacturing; professional and business services; educational and health services and leisure and hospitality.

By contrast, the economy bit deep in the public sector. There were additional job losses in government, which lost 8,600 jobs for a total of 76,500 eliminated since the 2010 turnaround.

Job declines also were reported in the area of mining and logging; information and financial activities.

Although California's job growth rate outpaced the U.S. as a whole, its unemployment rate remains far higher.

The U.S. jobless rate was 7.9 percent in October, up from 7.8 percent in the previous month, as more Americans began looking for work.

The government only counts people as unemployed if they are actively searching for work.