Josh Bivens, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said things are “expanding at a rate that is too slow to put reliable, significant downward pressure on joblessness.”

And Bivens predicted that growth will likely continue to decelerate as the government spending is trimmed.

“The surest way to boost near-term growth to pull down the unemployment rate remains further fiscal support,” Bivens said. “The fact that most of the policy debate is instead focused on just how fast this support will be ramped down in coming quarters is a sign of how detached this debate has become from economic reality.”