Although signs pointed to a strengthening economy earlier this year, the jobs report on Friday came with a message: don’t get ahead of yourself.

The country’s employers added a disappointing 120,000 jobs in March, about half the net gains posted in each of the preceding three months. The unemployment rate, which comes from a separate survey of households rather than employers, slipped to 8.2 percent, from 8.3 percent, as a smaller portion of the population looked for work.

Politicians seized on the data, with Mitt Romney, the front-runner in the Republican presidential nominating contest, characterizing the report as “weak and very troubling.” President Obama emphasized that employers had added more than 600,000 jobs in the last three months, but acknowledged the “ups and downs” in the jobs picture.

The slowdown suggests that employers remain cautious about hiring as they digest the impact of rising gas prices, especially on consumers, and as they face uncertainty about health care and pension costs.