Bloomberg (12/24/14) Michelle Jamrisko; Shobhana Chandra

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index went up to 43.1 for the period ending Dec. 21, the highest since October 2007. The gauge has increased by eight points over the past three months, and the reading shows the strength of the post-recession economy. Jobless claims hit a seven-week low that same week.

“It looks like consumers are in high gear heading into next year,” said Sean Incremona, senior economist at 4Cast Inc. “Better labor market conditions, better support for personal income, gas prices—we’re really seeing good momentum.”

Wall Street Journal (12/24/14) Eric Morath; Jonathan House

The number of Americans receiving jobless benefits has dropped by nearly 2 million over the past year. The elimination of an expanded benefits program in December 2013 cut benefits to about 1.4 million Americans, but steady improvements in the labor market have reduced layoffs and resulted in another 500,000 people being removed from state unemployment benefit programs.

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that 2.4 million people received unemployment assistance during the first week of December, marking a decline of 40% from the same week last year. Moreover, only 280,000 Americans applied for initial unemployment benefits last week, up just slightly from the 14-year low achieved in early October. According to John Ryding, an economist at RDQ Economics, “It shows how reluctant firms are to lay off labor at the present. As the labor market gets tighter, skilled workers are harder to find and companies hold on to the workers that they have.”

New York Times (12/23/14) Binyamin Appelbaum

As U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen approaches her first anniversary atop the Fed, the course she is charting illustrates both her determination to make jobs more readily available—and the limits of that pursuit, which are to some extent self-imposed. Under her leadership, the central bank has effectively expanded its stimulus campaign. It has done so by leaving its plans unchanged even as unemployment has declined much more quickly than its officials had expected. At the same time, Yellen has made clear that low borrowing costs cannot address all employment problems, and that she is not willing to test whether higher inflation might lead to greater economic growth. Fed officials and outside experts say that Yellen is likely to more distinctly define her own approach next year as the Fed picks its moment to start raising its benchmark interest rate for the first time in almost a decade.