The nation’s unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent in May, as employers hired far fewer workers than expected, Reuters reported.

The Labor Department said private employment increased by just 83,000, the least since June 2010. Government payrolls dropped 29,000. Economists had expected payrolls to rise by 150,000 and private-sector jobs to increase by 175,000, Reuters said.

The slowdown in hiring, which fueled concerns that the economy could be facing more hurdles than previously thought, came amid high energy prices and supply chain disruptions stemming from Japan’s earthquake and natural disasters in the South and Midwest here in the United States.

“There are plenty of reasons to expect the third quarter will be better,” said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at Lexington, Mass.-based IHS Global Insight. “But the question is now becoming how much better?”

Nonfarm payrolls increased 54,000 last month, the weakest reading since September. Economists said the data doesn’t suggest that the economy is heading into recession. But the slowdown in job creation has proved frustrating.

“It is likely that this will be a soft patch in the coming months, but overall it will probably be a soft patch rather than a double-dip recession or something worse,” said 4CAST economist Sean Incremona.

In April, the U.S. unemployment rate stood at 9 percent.