Photo by Glyn Lowe Photos.

The District added 4,000 jobs in March, though the unemployment rate remained flat at 9.8 percent, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday in the latest round of local unemployment figures.

The figures echo the current trend in national employment statistics, with the U.S.-wide unemployment rate having changed little between February and March after several months of robust job growth.

And though D.C.’s jobless rate remained stagnant, it is down from from 10 percent in March 2011. Unemployment in the District hovered in the double digits for over two years beginning in August 2009 before finally dipping to 9.9 percent in January. In the past 12 months, D.C. has added 13,100 jobs for a total of 738,600, according to the BLS.

Even though the needle moved very little in the past month, there are still some silver linings to be found, said Doug Hall, an analyst at the Economic Policy Institute.

“The fact that the employment rate is below 10 percent is a pretty good thing,” Hall said. “At the same time, an unemployment rate that’s more or less 10 percent is certainly not something to be celebrating. It’s obvious more needs to be done to turn the corner in what’s been a pretty weak recovery.”

Hall said much of the onus on keeping economic fires alive lies with the federal government funding infrastructure projects that can lead to long-term job creation. He cited a recent analysis by his organization of the budget proposal favored by House Republicans that would make significant cuts to domestic discretionary spending.

“The role of the federal government is clear here,” Hall said. “At the same time, state and local governments need to make sure they are not compromising their future based on the faulty premise of avoiding deficits down the road.”

That the the size of the District’s own payroll has remained largely unchanged at about 33,000 over the past year, Hall said, is a better trend than the hemorrhaging of public-sector jobs seen elsewhere in the same timespan. “One thing that has helped D.C. you haven’t seen these huge cuts to government employment you have in other places,” he said.

James H. Moore Jr., a deputy director of the District’s Department of Employment Services and the agency’s chief economist, said D.C. did well over the first quarter of 2012.

“We’ve had over 9,700 employment gains over the first quarter,” he said, nearly all of which were private-sector jobs.

As far as the unemployment rate remaining just a notch below 10 percent, Moore chalked it up to more unemployed residents resuming their job searches after becoming discouraged. “There’s some optimism that persons are no longer discouraged from entering the labor market,” he said.

Still, from the national perspective, March was a something of a letdown for jobseekers. Hall said the best phrase to describe observers like him is “cautiously optimistic.”

“We’re all sort of holding our breath to see what comes next,” he said. “We’re in the midst of a trend that’s generally positive, but coming off a month that was disappointing news.”

Elsewhere in the region, Maryland’s unemployment rate ticked up to 6.6 percent in March, up one-tenth of a percentage point in the past month. Virginia, meanwhile, continued to cut its jobless rate for the fourth consecutive month, dropping to 5.6 percent, the third-lowest rate among states east of the Mississippi River.

“Now, we must keep this positive momentum going,” Gov. Bob McDonnell said in a press release. “Virginia’s economy is recovering, but it is still early. Too many Virginians still need good jobs. Our work isn’t through until they are working again.”