(Reuters) - President Barack Obama hailed new signs of an improving U.S. labor market on Friday as proof that "we are beginning to turn the corner" but warned it would still take time to achieve sustained job growth.
Seeking to maintain momentum after lawmakers approved his cornerstone healthcare overhaul, Obama shifted focus to tackling high unemployment, a problem threatening to damage his Democratic Party's prospects in November's pivotal congressional elections.
Obama spoke after a closely watched government employment report showed that non-farm payrolls grew in March, adding 162,000 jobs, the strongest signal yet that the economic recovery is moving onto a more solid footing.
"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," Obama told workers at a battery components plant in North Carolina, a key battleground state he won in the 2008 presidential election.
