But the nation’s jobless rate still edged down to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent. That dip wasn’t for a good reason, though: Nearly half a million fewer people were participating in the labor force. That smaller pool meant the jobless rate could tick down even as job growth was weak.

The news was not in line with expectations. As we reported earlier, economists were expecting to hear that payrolls had grown by 200,000 jobs and that the jobless rate had remained at February’s 7.7 percent.

But the news was in line with the general trend. While the economy continues to add jobs — and has been steadily since mid-2010 — that growth remains slow and could weaken some more as the effects of the federal government’s sequestration budget cuts take effect.

We’ll have more from the report and reactions to it as morning continues. Be sure to hit your refresh button to see our latest updates.

Update at 10:45 a.m. ET. Economy Is “Continuing To Recover,” White House Says:

“While more work remains to be done, today’s employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression,” writes Alan Krueger, the president’s top economic adviser, on the White House blog. He adds that “it is critical that we continue the policies that are helping to build an economy that creates jobs and works for the middle class as we dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began in December 2007.”

Krueger also writes that “it is important to bear in mind that the March household and payroll surveys are the first monthly surveys to look at employment since the beginning of sequestration. While the recovery was gaining traction before sequestration took effect, these arbitrary and unnecessary cuts to government services will be a headwind in the months to come.”

Update at 9:45 a.m. ET. Stocks Drop:

Shortly after the opening of trading in New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down about 140 points (1 percent). Other indices were down 1-1.5 percent.

Update at 9:10 a.m. ET. Boehner Blames Obama’s Policies:

“The president’s policies continue to make it harder for Americans to find work,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says in a statement sent to reporters by his office. “Hundreds of thousands fled the workforce last month and unemployment remains far above what the Obama administration promised when it enacted its ‘stimulus’ spending plan.”

The White House typically posts its analysis here. We’ll watch for that.

Update at 9:05 a.m. ET. “Troubling”:

“The labor market had some reasonable momentum over the past several months, but with just 88,000 job gains in March, once again we see a disappointing seasonal slowdown unfold as we head into spring,” writes Kathy Bostjancic, director of macroeconomic analysis at The Conference Board, a business research group.

“What is even more troubling about the most recent slowdown,” she adds, “is that it takes place even before the sequester cuts materially hit the economy. This reinforces our view that the estimated 3.5 percent real GDP growth in [the first quarter] is not likely to be sustained. Instead, we see the overall economy, led by the consumer, downshifting significantly in the second quarter, struggling to get close to 1 percent real growth.”

Update at 9 a.m. ET. Early Analyses:

– “Employers hired fewer workers than forecast in March and a slump in the size of the labor force pushed the jobless rate down to a four-year low, indicating the U.S. job market is struggling to make bigger strides.” (Bloomberg News)

– “American employers hired at the slowest pace in nine months in March, a sign that Washington’s austerity drive could be stealing momentum from the economy. (Reuters)

– “There were few encouraging signs from this report. Employers added just 88,000 jobs in March, roughly a third the level of February’s number and the lowest figure since June 2012. Manufacturers cut jobs. The jobless rate fell for the wrong reasons–people dropped out of the labor market. One silver lining: Job growth in January and February was stronger than initially reported. The number of jobs added in those months was revised up by a combined 61,000.” (The Wall Street Journal‘s Real Time Economics blog)

Update at 8:55 a.m. ET. Bear In Mind, There Are Really Two Surveys.

This issue often comes up when BLS issues its report: The two headline numbers — the jobless rate and job growth — can seem to signal different things because they are based on separate surveys.

BLS derives the unemployment rate from a survey of households. Basically, it asks thousands of Americans a series of questions aimed at determining how many are and aren’t working.

In the other survey, it contacts public and private employers in an effort to determine how many jobs they have on their payrolls.

Update at 8:50 a.m. ET. Some Upward Revisions In Previous Months’ Job Growth:

Though the March payroll employment figure was surprisingly low, BLS also on Friday revised up its estimates of growth in January and February.

Initially, it reported that 119,000 jobs had been added to payrolls in January. Now, it says there were 148,000 jobs added that month.

And it had earlier reported that 236,000 jobs were added to payrolls in February. Now, it says there were 268,000 jobs added that month.

It is possible, of course, that a month from now BLS will say there were more than 88,000 jobs added in March.

Update at 8:45 a.m. ET. Decline In The Labor Force:

According to BLS, there were 496,000 fewer people counted as being part of the labor force last month. And, the “participation rate” declined to 63.3 percent from 63.5 percent.

So, despite the weak job growth picked up in the agency’s survey of employers, the jobless rate was nudged down to its lowest point since December 2008′s 7.3 percent.

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It’s been a year since Dish Network unveiled its new recording system, the Hopper. Or as the the commercials call it: “The Hoppa.”

Dish Network spokesman Aaron Johnson says the commercials have worked, and they need 90 new customer services at a call center in Hilliard.

“Helping set up new accounts for customers, answering questions for people that are exploring options for TV service, and helping existing customers manage their account,” Johnson says.

Johnson say the new positions, will pay $12 an hour, offer benefits, and need to be filled immediately.

But there are still questions about how much money is involved and where it came from.

JobsOhio’s annual report claims the entity assisted 277 companies that committed to creating or retaining 75,612 jobs in Ohio.

The Columbus Dispatch reports JobsOhio officials signed a contract for $10.27 million in July 2011 on its first day of existence, and then signed two contract extensions for a total of $3 million.

Those figures aren’t correct, says Laura Jones with JobsOhio. She says the initial contract was with the Ohio Business Development Coalition, a state marketing program that goes back to Gov. Bob Taft, and it was for around $5 million.

Jones says when OBDC became part of JobsOhio, contracts had to be signed again – and that looks like more money came in.

“That 10.2, I think, is inaccurate. That’s an aggregate number so that includes what was awarded in June of 2010 and doesn’t count for it having been extended. Most of that was already spent by the time JobsOhio was created,” Jones said.

The Dispatch story also says JobsOhio reports bringing in almost $7 million in donations.

A document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in January shows American Electric Power donated 2 million dollars to JobsOhio, but that’s the only disclosure so far to JobsOhio.

Jones says $7 million is the total that was donated to the OBDC, but says she can’t disclose where that money came from.

The company would claim that donation on their 990. We also will be, when we file our 990 very soon here, in the next month or so, those private donations – while the names will not be associated with those, there will be total amounts for those donations.

The legislature had also authorized a million dollars for JobsOhio’s startup costs, which JobsOhio had said was needed because of lawsuits filed over the constitutionality of the entity.

Jones says now that the liquor profits transfer has been authorized, the funding for JobsOhio is in place, and there won’t be any more donations. But the Ohio Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in the JobsOhio constitutionality case.

What Jones calls “misunderstandings” aren’t surprising to Dale Butland with Innovation Ohio, a liberal leaning think tank. He says JobsOhio’s annual report actually raised more questions than it answered.

We still don’t know how much public money has been spent. We still don’t know how JobsOhio calculates its return on investment, which means also have no idea whether the investments that JobsOhio has made have been good or bad. And we still don’t know, in the end, how many jobs weren’t going to have, or how many jobs have actually been created.

Jones says JobsOhio has been very transparent and accountable and has filed all the paperwork it’s required to. But Butland disagrees on the transparency issue.

“Many of the people on the board, we know, are big contributors of Gov. Kasich,” Jones says.

“And this money can be spent willy-nilly anywhere around the state, perhaps in support of the Governor’s campaign, his re-election campaign. But I think that none of these questions are going to be answered until there’s some more transparency here.”

Documents from JobsOhio show half of the 26 salaries paid by the organization were at least $100,000, with JobsOhio’s president and CIO making $225,000.

Jones says those figures were accurate a few months ago, but that there are only 21 people working for JobsOhio now. Butland notes that the top salary is more that John Kasich makes as governor.

The bulk of the jobs will be in Columbus. Time Warner spokesman Mike Hogan says although cable service has declined, requests for other services such as internet have increased. And he says that sparked the need to hire.

“We have a lot of new products and services available to customers, and there’s just a demand,” Hogan says.

The jobs will include sales associates, customer services representatives, and technical support positions.

The report from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services lists an October jobless rate of 6.9 percent, down from 7 percent in September. The report says the state added nearly 14,000 jobs last month, and about 10,000 people left unemployment rolls.

The report says service-providing industries added 16,000 jobs in October. Employment in professional and business services increased by about 7,300 workers, and government agencies added about 5,200 jobs.

Construction added about 300 jobs, while trade, transportation and utilities lost about 3,800 positions, and manufacturing shed about 2,200 jobs.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services says Ohio   gained about  11,000 jobs last month.  The biggest gains were in educational and health services while the biggest job loss occurred in government.

The number of unemployed workers in Ohio was 418,000, about 2,000 less than June.

Ohio’s jobless rate still remains below the US rate of 8.3 percent and lower than Ohio’s unemployment rate was last year.  Last July Ohio’s rate stood at 8.9 percent.

For a detailed look at the figures, click here.

Data from the global non-profit Conference Board shows, from the middle of May to the middle of June, companies posted more than 45,000 job ads in the region.

That’s about 2,000 more than the previous month, which is normal for a month when many students and graduates need jobs.

But more importantly, says central Ohio economist Bill Lafayette, the survey showed an increase of 8,000 job ads over the same time last year.

“Overall, Columbus has gained back more than 80 percent of the jobs that we lost in the recession,” Lafayette says.

Much of that, Lafayette says, is because of hiring increases in manufacturing.

In this latest survey, the most wanted workers were truck drivers, retails sales employees, and customer sales representatives.

The latest figures from the Department of Job and Family Services show a June jobless rate of 7.2 percent, that’s down from 7.3 percent in May.

Unemployment rolls shrank by about 7,000 in June, while employers reported adding 18,400 jobs last month.

Discover Financial Services announced it will open the data center in 2013, not far from an operation center it now runs in New Albany, where 1,500 employees now work.

Gov. John Kasich says the competition for the facility was fierce, and he was worried Ohio would lose the project to Arizona or South Carolina.

“Not just that, but we would have lost people, too. We wouldn’t have lost (all Discover jobs, but we would have lost people,” Kasich says.

The state is offering Discover a tax credit worth a little more than $4 million, and the city is offering property and other tax breaks.

The company will lease the building from the city of Columbus and Franklin County.

The west side casino has posted a listing of career opportunities on the Company’s Facebook page.

The company is expected to hire 2,000 workers in a variety of staff position at the new facility located at West Broad Street and Georgesville Road.

The casino is scheduled to open later this year.