The U.S. added 252,000 jobs in December, while unemployment dropped to 5.6 percent

The U.S. added 252,000 jobs in December, while unemployment dropped to 5.6 percent
(Image credit: iStock)

New numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning show that the American economy added 252,000 nonfarm private jobs in December 2014. The unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent, from 5.8 percent in November.

The December numbers beat the 230,000 new jobs economists were expecting, as well as average job growth over the past 11 months. The November numbers were also revised upwards this morning to 353,000, and October's to 261,000, meaning 50,000 more jobs were gained than initially reported between the two months.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.