Monthly job gains fell significantly in March, and were well below the expectations of most forecasters. The economy added only 126,000 net new jobs in March, and January and February’s job gains were revised downward by 69,000 jobs. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent.

More thoughts below, in tweets.

There’s a lot of uncertainty about the economy right now. Hopefully the clouds will part in the months to come.

— Michael R. Strain is deputy director of economic policy studies and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/MichaelRStrain.