Employers in the United States shed fewer jobs than expected in February, cutting 36,000 jobs. Analysts had been expecting 50,000.
Last month's unemployment rate stayed steady at 9.7%, the same as in January and lower than December's rate of 10%.
The BBC reports employment in the construction and government sectors fell, but there were more temporary jobs.
There are currently around 14.9 million unemployed people in the US: 40% have been out of work for 27 weeks or more.
Employment has fallen by 8.4 million since the start of the recession in December 2007.
