The low job growth in March was an unpleasant surprise and underscores the fact that a robust jobs recovery has not yet solidified.   March growth of 120,000 is less than half the average rate of the last three months, 246,000.  The unemployment rate ticked down by one-tenth of a percent to 8.2%, but that was largely due to people dropping out of the labor force, not an increase in the share of the working-age population with jobs.

Heidi Shierholz