U.S. employers hired at the slowest pace in nine months in March following a period of strong hiring, the government said in a report Friday that suggests the labor-market recovery will be uneven and Washington's austerity effort could be limiting economic growth. The Labor Department said the economy added only 88,000 net jobs last month, far below economist expectations of up to 200,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent in February. While that is the lowest level in four years, the rate fell only because more unemployed people stopped looking for jobs. The slower pace of job growth marks a reversal of the recent trend in which the labor market seemed to be accelerating its pace of recovery. The job gains in March were half the pace of the previous six months, when the economy added an average of 196,000 jobs a month. The slowdown in hiring comes after Washington increased taxes in January and federal budget cuts started in March, indicating that some companies were worried last month about the country's fiscal situation. The unemployment rate fell in March as the labor force shrank by 496,000 people. The decline in the labor force sent the share of the population that is either employed or seeking employment to 63.3 percent, the lowest since 1979.
