Here’s the good news. The U.S. added more than 2.1 million jobs in 2013 for the third straight year, the best stretch since 2004 to 2006.

Now the not-so-good news. The economy still hasn’t recovered all the jobs lost in the Great Recession, even though the working-age (16-64) population has grown by about 5 million over the past five years.

The U.S. has to add an additional 1.18 million jobs to match its prior peak of 138.1 million, set in the first month of 2008.

Nor is the quality of the jobs created the stuff of an economy running on all cylinders. More than half of all new positions added in 2013 appear to pay $18 an hour or less, a review of government data shows. That’s just three-fourths of the national average of all American workers.

See the following slides to find out where all the jobs were created in 2013 and how much they pay. (These numbers will be modified slightly once the government conducts its normal revisions).

-Jeffry Bartash

Also read:Companies reach limit of jury-rigged profit growth

College education still pays

Professional ranks led the way in job creation for the fourth straight year. Some 100,000 executives or managers were hired and demand was brisk for architects, engineers and computer designers. These plum jobs pay an average of $30 to $40 an hour.

Yet the bulk of the hiring was concentrated in white-collar positions and temporary jobs that pay a lot less: $16 to $18 an hour.

About two-thirds of the new jobs involve administrative work and some 247,000 were temporary. Firms are relying more heavily on temp work since the end of the recession.

Americans are getting out

Americans are spending more time and money outside the home and it shows.

The leisure and hospitality industry stepped up hiring again in 2013. The industry added almost 400,000 jobs, pushing its four-year total to 1.36 million.

Restaurants and other eating establishments spearheaded the advance as Americans went out to eat more. Hotel stays rose, amusement parks drew bigger crowds and people dropped more cash on recreational pursuits.

The workers in these businesses, however, did not fare great. The average industry salary is just $13.66 an hour before tips. That works out to some $550 a week (40 hours) or just over $28,000 a year.

A single breadwinner in one of these jobs would find it hard to support a family. A family of four is considered to be living in poverty if its total income is $23,550 or less.

Retailers rebound

Retailers added the most workers in 2013 in 14 years, and the industry is nearing its all-time high.

By and large, retail workers do not make big bucks. The average hourly wage is just $16.62 and companies often limit the number of hours people can work in a week.

Some retail jobs do pay pretty well. Auto dealerships and parts sellers, for example, pay an average of $22.26 an hour. That was the fastest-growing retail segment in 2013. Internet retailers pay even better – nearly $26 an hour.

On the opposite end, grocery employees earn an average of $12.85 an hour and gasoline stations pay $12 an hour.

Here’s to your health

The health-care industry has added at least 200,000 jobs a year for 14 straight years, and even the Great Recession failed to put a handcuff on hiring. The prolonged boom largely reflects the growing needs of an aging population.

In 2013, 57,000 people went to work in the offices of dentists and doctors. Some 68,000 people were hired to provide health care in the home. And the number of social workers surged by 76,000

Not all these jobs offer big paychecks, however. Home health-care workers, for example, earn an average of just under $19 an hour. And social workers earn just over $15 an hour.

Hard times over for hard hats?

The construction trades added 122,000 jobs in 2013, and the industry has gained 365,000 jobs over the last three years.

As a result, some 5.83 million people now ply their trade in a well-paying industry (average hourly wage: $26.37) that’s on the upswing again.

Yet those gains pale in comparison to the whopping 2.2 million construction jobs that disappeared from 2007 to 2010 amid the worst housing bust in the modern era. The net loss in that kind of work alone has prevented the U.S. from regaining back all the jobs it lost in the Great Recession.

About four-fifths of the new construction workers are building homes or performing special tasks such as framing or drywall. Hiring in commercial construction is much weaker.

Masters of universe no more

The world of finance has a split personality these days. The industry gained 84,000 jobs in 2013, but some segments fared much better than others.

Commercial banks cut 33,000 positions, for example, as Wall Street struggles to cope with a wave of new regulatory restraints and a soft economy. Traditional deposit banks also eliminated 25,000 positions.

The biggest gains in hiring occurred in real estate (46,000, $23 an hour) and insurance (16,500, $35 an hour).

Yet even after three straight years of hiring, the financial industry has only recovered 235,000 of the 714,000 jobs lost during the financial panic and ensuing economic meltdown.

Heavy industry sees a little daylight

The long national nightmare for the manufacturing sector appears to be over, but that doesn’t mean a new dawn is approaching.

Manufacturers hired nearly 80,000 workers in 2013 and padded payrolls for the fourth straight year. Employment has climbed by 557,000 since the end of the recession, led by the resurgent auto sector (40,000 new jobs last year)

Unfortunately the industry cut employment each year during a 12-year stretch from 1998 to 2009, eliminating a stupefying 6.1 million jobs.

Manufacturing jobs pay well — an average of $24.64 an hour.