When unemployment drops by only .1 and the number of new jobs misses the mark by 45,000, "disappointment" is one of the gentler terms you could use in describing April's sad jobs report.

According to the Department of Labor, April's unemployment rate is at 8.1 percent (down from 8.2 in March) and only 115,000 new jobs were added during the month--dashing the optimistic predictions economists had about this month's jobs report. Bloomberg's stable of well-connected economists had predicted payrolls climbing by 160,000 workers, and not only do this month's actual numbers fall way short of that figure, but the number is also 5,000 lower than March's figure, which was already the smallest gain in five months.

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Alexander Abad-Santos