The jobs numbers proved disappointing to Wall Street economists. | REUTERS Unemployment down slightly in April

The unemployment rate fell slightly to 8.1 percent, but there were signs of the recovery stalling with more Americans dropping out of the workforce and the economy adding a disappointing 115,000 jobs in April, the government reported Friday.

As has been the case for the past two years, a surge in hiring at the start of the year has slowed to a trickle. The drop in unemployment from 8.2 percent is not much of a victory for President Barack Obama, even though it’s the best jobless rate since his inauguration at the start of 2009. That’s because the decline is largely explained by people giving up on their job hunts and the participation rate dipping to 63.6 percent last month — its lowest point since December 1981.


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Speaking at a high school in Arlington, Va., Obama called the report “good news,” yet stuck to his long-time argument that more federal help is needed to fully recover from the financial meltdown that happened almost four years ago. He criticized House Republicans for not reaching an agreement with Democrats on stopping interest rates on government subsidized student loans from doubling.

“Next week, I’m going to urge Congress as they start getting back to work to take some actions on some common-sense ideas right now that can accelerate even more job growth,” he said. “There’s too much at stake for all of us to not be rowing in the same direction.”

Presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney blasted Obama over the Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

“We should be seeing numbers in the 500,000 jobs created per month. This is way, way, way off from what should happen in a normal recovery,” he told “Fox & Friends.” “The reason you’re seeing the unemployment rate go down is because you have more people dropping out of the workforce than you have getting jobs. It’s a terrible and very disappointing report this morning. Clearly, the American people are wondering why this recovery isn’t happening faster, why it’s taken years and years for the recovery to occur. And we seem to be slowing down, not speeding up. This is not progress. This is very, very disappointing and a lot of the American people are having very hard times and this is not good this morning.”

Romney expanded on that riff at a campaign stop in O’Hara Township, Pa., saying stats such as the unemployment rate don’t explain the scope of the predicament facing many Americans.

“The numbers,” he said, “don’t really tell you what’s going on in people’s lives as much as actually talking to people and hearing their stories.”

His perspective was challenged by the White House, with Alan Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, saying in a statement that “nearly three-quarters” of the unemployment rate’s drop from 9.1 percent in August is attributable to increased employment.

Krueger said the “report provides further evidence that the economy is continuing to heal from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.”

But even those sympathetic to Obama noted that a slide in the unemployment rate because of people exiting the job market is a negative for an economy that seemed to be accelerating just a few months ago.

“I’m just not seeing a ton of sunshine in here,” Jared Bernstein, a former economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden and now a fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told CNBC.

Austan Goolsbee, former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, summarized the figures by tweeting, “more hmpf than oomph.”

The report proved disappointing to Wall Street economists who forecast that 160,000 jobs would be added. One of the few bright spots were revisions finding that an additional 53,000 jobs than first estimated were generated during the months of March and February.

The meager gains were driven by an increase of 29,000 retail jobs, 20,000 being hired by restaurants and bars, 19,000 new health care workers, and a 16,000 bump in manufacturing employment. Transportation and warehousing lost 17,000 jobs in April. Government continued to weigh on the recovery as it shed 15,000 jobs last month, including 10,700 in the education field.

The stock market quickly veered to negative territory, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing down 169 points, or 1.28 percent, in Friday trading.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Obama should spend less time focused on policies geared toward his reelection and more energy on providing a strong economic rebound.

“Families are stuck: The wages of those fortunate enough to have a job are stagnant, but they’re paying more for everything from gasoline to groceries,” he said in a statement. “But rather than address these challenges, President Obama has wasted time trying to distract the American people with gimmicks like the Buffett tax hike and fake fights over noncontroversial issues. Election-year gimmicks might win the president some votes, but they won’t create American jobs.”

James Chessen, chief economist at the American Bankers Association, said gasoline prices approaching $4 a gallon likely contributed to a slowdown in hiring, as businesses were saddled with increased expenses.

“That’s underlying all of this,” Chessen said. “All of those are costs that have to offset somewhere and that may be in jobs.”

That pressure should start to ease as gasoline prices have declined in recent weeks to of $3.80 a gallon.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the less than stellar jobs report was a natural response to the outsized employment increases caused by an unseasonably warm winter, with the weather causing businesses to hire earlier than normal.

Zandi told CNBC the economy should be back on track with 175,000-200,000 new jobs each month by summer.

“This is all technical and temporary,” he said. “It’s weather payback.”

— Mackenzie Weinger and Reid Epstein contributed to this report.