Unemployment Drops To 5.6% As Economy Adds 252K Jobs

Unemployment Dips To 5.6 Percent As Economy Adds 252K Jobs http://t.co/Q5aqXqVcDw
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From NPR:

The U.S. economy added 252,000 jobs in December, capping a 12-month stretch of job growth unmatched since 1999, according to the Labor Department. In a separate survey, the department says that the unemployment rate dipped to 5.6 percent from 5.8 percent the previous month.

The department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that job gains occurred in professional and business services, construction, food and drinking establishments, health care and manufacturing.

NPR's John Ydstie, reporting on Morning Edition ahead of this morning's announcement, says that it's been 15 years since job growth was so strong.

"[You] have to go all the way back to 1999, when companies were rapidly hiring IT workers to deal with the Y2K threat to computer systems. That year the economy added about 3.2 million new jobs," John says.

The number of jobs created in October and November was also revised upward by 50,000 for the two months combined, according to BLS.