CNNMoney ^ | 5/4/2012 | Charles Riley
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- April's jobs report was, in a word, disappointing. The economy added only 115,000 jobs. Hiring slowed. More than 340,000 workers dropped out of the labor force.
April's report, which follows lackluster numbers for March, is particularly bad news for President Obama's campaign staff in Chicago.
Election forecasters have long argued that a swiftly improving economy in the months leading up to Election Day represents Obama's best chance for an easy re-election romp.
After all, that's the playbook Ronald Reagan used to steamroll Walter Mondale in 1984. Reagan was able to capture a whopping 525 electoral votes, in part because the economy was rapidly climbing out of a recession as voters went to the polls.
But now, it looks like the Obama team will have to set aside hopes of a Reaganesque recovery. That's because job growth is following a familiar pattern: strong in the winter, weak in the spring.
A few months ago, it looked like the labor market was starting to gain some traction. The economy added 200,000+ jobs from December through February.
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