Unemployment in the Garden State was 4.5 percent last month, down from 4.7 percent the previous month, according to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The number of people working on nonfarm payrolls inside the state also rose by 3,700 to 4,069,100. Almost all the job increases were in the private sector, with about two-thirds of the new jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector, which gained 2,200 jobs. ``The data show that New Jersey continued to maintain a healthy economy with a record high employment level last month,’’ acting state Labor Commissioner David Socolow said. However, economic experts said that underneath the surface, the jobs picture is not as positive as it seems. ``Growth has been skewed toward below-average-paying sectors,’’ Joseph J. Seneca, a Rutgers University economics professor and head of the state Council of Economic Advisors, told The Record of Bergen County for Thursday’s editions. James Hughes, dean of the Edward Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, told The Star-Ledger of Newark that the Garden State continues to have an undesirable pattern in which the part of the economy with high-paying jobs is decreasing, while low-paying jobs are on the rise. New Jersey unemployment, meanwhile, continues to stay below the national average, which dropped from 4.8 to 4.7 percent in March. Seneca said that New Jersey is nevertheless ``lagging behind the national growth rate.’’