Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

President Barack Obama said Friday that the recently announced 162,000 jobs gained in March signals that the U.S. is "beginning to turn the corner."

"Today is an encouraging day," Obama said during an afternoon appearance in Charlotte, North Carolina. "We learned that the economy actually produced a substantial number of jobs instead of losing a substantial number of jobs. We are beginning to turn the corner."

Obama went on to applaud the increase as "the best news ... on the job front in more than two years."

Despite his optimism, the president stressed that the U.S. still needs to improve the unemployment situation in the U.S.

"Today's job numbers, while welcome, leaves us with a lot more work to do," Obama noted. "It will take time to achieve the strong and sustained job growth that we need."

Although Friday's data, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows an increase in jobs, March's unemployment rate of 9.7 percent represented little change from the previous month. An influx of employees hired to perform the U.S. census accounted for 48,000 temporary jobs.