WASHINGTON, April 4 (AFP) – President Barack Obama said Friday the recession-racked US economy was ''beginning to turn the corner,'' as data showed 162,000 jobs were created in March, the biggest increase in three years.

The US Labor Department said job creation leaped dramatically in March after years of near-continual losses, although the increase was not enough to budge the unemployment rate from 9.7 percent.

With close to one in 10 American workers unable to find a job, Friday's figures were an eagerly-awaited indicator of the strength of the economic recovery.

In a rare positive report, the Labor Department said job creation rose markedly from February, when economy lost 14,000 posts according to revised figures.

News that the economy is again creating jobs came as a relief to Obama, who lauded the report as a sign that the still-fragile economy was on the mend.

''I have often had to report bad news during the course of this year,'' Obama said in remarks at a factory in North Carolina.

''Today is an encouraging day. 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... the worst of the storm is over.''

But there was little sign of White House backslapping, amid news that the unemployment rate did not change for the third consecutive month.

The rate of job growth was just enough to offset continued sackings, population growth and people rejoining the labor market.

Since the recession began in December 2007 around eight million Americans have lost their jobs.

Some 15 million Americans remain unemployed. ''We've been through the worst period of economic turmoil since the Great Depression,'' Obama said. ''While we've come a long way, we still got a ways to go.''