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 (http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/unemployment-rate-drops-56-economy-creates-252000-jobs)

Dropping oil prices is great for the national economy but not so good for Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma / Texas economies therefore have always been somewhat counter-cyclical.

Hopefully, a balance can be struck.

I agree and I heard something on NPR this morning about that. They pointed out there are far more energy users that are benefiting than producers that are feeling the pinch. A balance would be nice for states like OK and TX.

My old rust belt hometown is finally starting to see some positive news. Not that lower fuel prices are the main driver, but they are still heavy in manufacturing so it does help. Over the last few weeks they have had several service industries announce moving back to their once dead downtown and with plans to expand...creating like 1500 new jobs in addition to the exist 1500 that will be moving in and shifting the income taxes with them.