Job Growth Loses Steam as U.S. Adds 98,000 in March

Looking for a Trump bump in the economy? Keep waiting.

After two months of stellar job creation that convinced administration officials that President Trump’s policies were paying off immediately, employers pulled back sharply on hiring in March.

The economy added 98,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday, fewer than half the monthly number for January and February.

The report contained some notable good news: The unemployment rate fell to 4.5 percent, the lowest level in almost a decade and a milestone in the long road back from the Great Recession. The rate was 4.7 percent in February. Wages also continued to rise.

But the disappointing number of new jobs was jarring for the administration, and well below what economists had expected. It comes as the stock market surge, which followed the November election, subsides and amid signs that economic growth in the year’s first quarter proves weak.

By NELSON D. SCHWARTZAPRIL 7, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/business/economy/job-creation-unemployment-trump.html?_r=0