Economic Comeback???

The December jobs report was released this morning and it appears to be good news both for America, and for President Obama's re-election prospects going forward (if the numbers continue to improve that is). From Annalyn Censky at CNN:

The economy added 200,000 jobs in the month, the Labor Department reported Friday, doubling the number of jobs added in November. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 8.5%, the lowest level since February 2009.

Moreover, the new jobs are coming from the private sector and not the government:

Private businesses have been adding jobs consistently since March 2010, while the government has been bleeding jobs. In December, private employers added 212,000 jobs, while the public sector cut 12,000 jobs.

The positive new numbers are a good sign going forward that the US will likely avoid a double-dip recession, even as it seems increasingly likely that Europe is headed for one on account of its sovereign debt crisis. Why exactly the country seems to be slowly rising out of the worst depths of the Great Recession is uncertain, but some likely explanations are simply that labor costs have once again fallen to levels that match employer demand, or that multinationals who might otherwise do business with Europe are coming to America instead on account of the aforementioned Euro problem.