Today in business: 5 things you need to know

A weak jobs report drags down stocks, Samsung teams with Best Buy, and more in our roundup of the business stories that are making news and driving opinion

Samsung will debut mini retail spots in the U.S., the first opening on April 8.
(Image credit: Imaginechina/Corbis)

1. A DISAPPOINTING EMPLOYMENT REPORT SCARES INVESTORS

The U.S. economy added just 88,000 jobs in March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The gains — the weakest in nine months — fell far short of the nearly 200,000 analysts expected, and sent stocks tumbling as investors feared the economic recovery might be losing steam. The unemployment rate edged down to 7.6 percent, from 7.7 percent, the lowest it's been since December 2008, but the dip was largely attributed to the 500,000 people who either left the workforce or stopped looking for work entirely. The White House said the numbers were actually proof we're slowly recovering from the Great Recession, as the economy has now added jobs for 37 straight months. [The Week]

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.