The economy added 120,000 jobs in March, well below what economists predicted, while the unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 8.2 percent.
The number is nearly half of the 210,000 expected and ends the streak of three straight months when the economy added more than 200,000 jobs, according to a Labor Department report released Friday.
The news isn't what the White House would want to see just as the labor market seemed to be improving at a faster pace.