But when looking over a longer period of time, the results remain mixed.
In looking at the base, month-over-month numbers, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics had good news as 203,000 jobs were created in November and the unemployment rate dropped from 7.3 to 7 percent, according to figures released this morning.
CNBC was projecting 180,000 jobs created and a 7.2 percent unemployment rate.
In the short-term, labor force participation ticked up from 62.8 percent to 63 percent as 455,000 people joined the labor force in the month and the number of people listed as not in the labor force declined by 268,000, government figures indicate.
But, when you look at a year ago, the picture is far more mixed. A year ago the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent, but there were 25,000 more people in the labor force, figures show. And the number of people listed as not in the labor force was nearly 2.5 million fewer a year ago than it is today. The labor force participation rate in November 2012 was 63.6 percent while the employment to population ratio was 58.7 percent a year ago, compared to 58.6 percent in November of this year. The number of long-term unemployed, on the other hand, has fallen 718,000 in the past year, figures show.
The Gross Domestic Product rate increased at an annual rate of 3.6 percent in the third quarter, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis said this week, well exceeding the previous estimate a month ago and showing an economy that was heating up prior to the government shutdown.
The increase "reflected an acceleration in private inventory investment, a deceleration in imports, and an acceleration in state and local government spending that were partly offset by decelerations in exports, in personal consumption expenditures, and in nonresidential fixed investment," the bureau reported.