Good news indeed.....

Continuing a trend of solid job gains, the U.S. economy added 252,000 jobs in December, and the unemployment rate fell to 5.6%.

The job gains were stronger than analysts had expected, and the unemployment rate is now 0.2% lower than in the previous month. Overall, 2014 marked the strongest year of job gains since 1999, adding 2.95 million new jobs total and an average monthly gain of 246,000.

“Although job gains did not match the tremendous November increase, they were nonetheless strong and indicative of momentum in the labor market that is expected to continue in 2015,” said Sophia Koropeckyj, senior economist and managing director for Moody’s Analytics. The firm expects monthly job gains to pick up and exceed 300,000 by the end of the year.

Unemployment rate drops to 5.6% as economy creates 252,000 jobs | MSNBC