NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stock futures got a slight lift early Friday after the government said more jobs were created in February than expected.

U.S. stock futures were up, indicating a higher open for U.S. markets.

The Labor Department said the economy created 243,000 jobs in February, up from a revised 170,000 in January. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com were looking for an addition of 210,000 jobs.

The report also said the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.8 percent in February, up slightly from January's 4.7 percent rate. Briefing.com was calling for the rate to hold steady.

Oil prices were higher in early trading Friday.

The April light crude futures contract for NYMEX gained 4 cents to $60.51 a barrel in electronic trading, while the April contract for Brent crude rose 16 cents to $61.22.

Major markets in Asia closed mixed Friday, the day after the Bank of Japan signaled the end of its long-held near-zero interest rate policy. Major European markets were flat in early trading.

Treasury prices turned higher, cutting the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.71 percent from 4.72 percent late Thursday. The dollar was lower against the euro but up against the yen.

In corporate news, the Wall Street Journal reported that newspaper publisher McClatchy (Research) appeared to be the leading bidder in the auction for the Knight Ridder (Research) newspaper chain, with an offer reported to be worth more than $65 a share in cash and stock, or more than $4.35 billion. That would represent a premium of only about 4 percent from current prices for Knight Ridder shares.

Media conglomerate Walt Disney (Research) has its shareholder meeting Friday, the first under the leadership of CEO Robert Iger, with the company's shares among the best performers of the components of the Dow in 2006. The meeting is likely to be far calmer than the one two years ago that included a shareholder revolt that led to the removal of Michael Eisner as chairman of the company and started him on the path to an earlier than planned retirement.

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