WASHINGTON, DC-US employment growth fell down on the job inMarch, with the jobless rate declining 10 basis points fromFebruary but labor market gains posting their weakest showing infive months. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday that120,000 jobs were added in March, or half the revised Februaryfigure of 240,000.

Economists polled by Reuters and Bloomberg had expectedincreases in nonfarm payrolls of 203,000 and 205,000, respectively,during the month. “We see a lack of sustainability in terms ofstrong job growth,” Tony Crescenzi, a strategist at PacificInvestment Management Co. in Newport Beach, CA, said in a Bloombergradio interview. “This is still not strong enough to create escapevelocity, which is to say an economy strong enough to make it onits own without additional monetary stimulus from the FederalReserve.”

It remains an open question whether the Fed will see theweaker-than-expected March job numbers as reason to consideranother round of quantitative easing. In a speech last week,Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke expressed doubts aboutwhether recent job growth was sustainable in the near term. “Butwe’ll need plenty more evidence before the Fed will make anydecisions on that,” Nigel Gault, Boston-based chief US economistfor IHS Global Insight, wrote in an analysis Friday.