LONDON (AP) -- European stocks recovered earlier losses and Wall Street traded in a narrow range as investors mostly shruggged off another jump in U.S. unemployment, to 10.2 percent in October.

The rise above the 10 percent mark was the first since 1983 and a reminder that the world's largest economy, which last week was confirmed to have emerged from recession, will recover only slowly.

Still, markets were little shaken by the news and opted to look at the bright side -- the 190,000 jobs lost was an improvement from the previous month's 219,000.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed 0.3 percent higher at 5,142.72 while Germany's DAX gained 0.1 percent to 5,488.25. The CAC-40 in France fell 0.1 percent to 3,706.29. The indexes had all fallen on the jobs data.

Asian indexes had closed higher, riding positive momentum from Thursday, but Wall Street showed more caution after the data. The Dow Jones industrials average was up 0.1 percent at 10,012.46 while the Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 0.1 percent to 1,066.50.

Economists had been forecasting job losses of about 175,000 in October and an unemployment rate of 9.9 percent. It is the 22nd straight month the U.S. economy has shed jobs, the longest on records dating back 70 years.

The health of the U.S. labor market is crucial for the global economy because it accounts for over two thirds of U.S. economic activity and 20 percent of the world economy.

"Even though the recovery in output began around the middle of the year, the U.S. economy is still not expanding rapidly enough to generate net gains in employment," said Paul Ashworth, economist at Capital Economics.

He noted there were some increases in temporary employment, but said it was disappointing to see that average hours worked did not rise -- if companies are not working their employees harder they are unlikely to have to hire new staff.

"This recovery is shaping up to be a 'jobless' one," he said.

In Europe, however, corporate earnings reports were relatively more encouraging.

British Airways shares jumped 6.7 percent after it reported a loss but said it had cut costs aggressively. Royal Bank of Scotland PLC shares were up 5.3 percent after it confirmed its preliminary estimate for a big third quarter loss of 1.8 billion pounds ($3 billion) but said its underlying profitability had improved.

Next week, many of the U.S.'s larger retail operators post results, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Macy's Inc and JC Penney Inc. to mention just a few.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average rose 0.7 percent to 9,789.35 and Hong Kong's index gained 1.6 percent to 21829.72, helped by gains in world markets on Thursday.

South Korea's benchmark rose 1.3 percent while Australia's index jumped nearly 2 percent as the central bank more than tripled this year's growth forecast to 1.75 percent from 0.5 percent and strongly hinted at more rate hikes.

Crude prices fell, with benchmark crude for December delivery down $2.39 cents to $77.23 a barrel; the contract fell 78 cents overnight.

The dollar slipped to 89.81 yen from 90.78 yen late Thursday in New York, while the euro fell to $1.4848 from $1.4868.

Currency traders will be keeping a close eye on developments in St. Andrews, Scotland, where the finance ministers of the Group of 20 rich and developing countries are meeting.

Though some ministers may voice concerns about the dollar's continuing fall in value, analysts do not expect to see an explicit reference to currency valuations in the communique that follows the meeting.

"With too many competing views, expect much of the focus of the meeting to be on crisis exit strategies as opposed to foreign exchange," said Brian Dolan, chief currency strategist at Forex.com.

AP Business Writers Pan Pylas in London and Kelly Olsen in Seoul contributed to this report.