America's Jobs Report Disappointing But Not Yet Deja Vu

THE American jobs data released today will inevitably draw worrisome thoughts of déja vu. In both 2010 and 2011, the economy showed promising signs of growth early on only to see them peter out by summer time. This year, the hope went, would be different: employment rose an average of 246,000 per month in December through February. Economists had expected similar-sized gains in March.