US employers in March added the fewest workers in nine months as the jobless rate fell to a four-year low with the share of Americans in the labor force slumping, marking a pause in the job-market recovery.

Payrolls grew by 88,000, less than the most-pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg survey, after a revised 268,000 gain in February, Labor Department data showed in Friday in Washington. Unemployment dropped to 7.6 percent, the lowest since December 2008, from 7.7 percent.

The inability to sustain bigger gains in hiring and wages helps explain why the Federal Reserve is maintaining record monetary policy stimulus. Bond yields tumbled and stocks retreated as the report heightened concern that federal budget cuts will temper growth in the world's largest economy following a first-quarter pickup.