Joblessness Remains Steady at 5.3% in Dec. : Economy: But unemployment edges upward .03 percentage points to 5.3% in California.

The nation’s unemployment rate held steady at 5.3% last month as employment gains in service industries offset the ninth consecutive monthly drop in manufacturing jobs, the government said today. The figures suggested the economy’s sluggishness is not worsening into a recession.

In California, the jobless rate rose, to 5.3% from 5% in November.

The nationwide jobless rate as measured by a household survey by the Labor Department was unchanged despite the gain of 142,000 jobs in December, a figure artificially bolstered by the return of 55,000 striking telephone workers in New York.

The survey of employers, from which the job growth figure is derived, is often considered a more reliable indicator of economic developments by analysts.

The unemployment rate began 1989 at 5.4% in January and since then has fluctuated in a narrow range within a tenth of a percentage point of 5.3%, except for March when it dipped to a 15-year low of 5%. The average for the year was 5.3%.

Last month, the Labor Department said the November unemployment rate was 5.4% but today it revised that figure down to 5.3%.

The unemployment stall in 1989 was due primarily to a slowdown in the manufacturing sector, which lost 25,000 jobs in December, bringing job losses since March to 195,000.

Overall job growth during the last six months of the year averaged about 160,000 a month, down sharply from the average 270,000 monthly gain during the previous 2 1/2 years.

The economy, according to the household survey, produced 1.7 million new jobs during 1989, bringing the civilian work force to 117.9 million. That was down from job gains of 2.3 million in 1988.

More manufacturing layoffs are expected. Auto makers have already announced plant shutdowns this month.

The average manufacturing workweek held steady in December at 40.7 hours, as did overtime at 3.7 hours.

Construction employers reported a seasonally adjusted 38,000 fewer jobs in December than a month earlier. Analysts are attributing the drop to the deep freeze that gripped most of the nation last month.

In contrast, service-producing industries continued to demonstrate healthy gains, adding 206,000 jobs to bring growth for the year to 2.4 million.

Transportation employers added 73,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis last month. Business services added 14,000; health services, 47,000; government, 34,000, and finance, insurance and real estate, 13,000. Retail employment grew by 12,000 fewer jobs than the normally expected seasonal gain.

Mining industries, which includes oil drilling, lost 1,000 jobs.