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The American home market continued to offer low mortgage rates as home lenders await more news about how the Federal Reserve will handle fiscal policy going into 2014.

There also was anticipation about the unemployment report set to come out at the end of the first full week of January.

Employers added 238,000 jobs in December, the most since November 2012, according to payroll processing company ADP. The ADP data was released just two days before the U.S. Department of Labor releases unemployment figures for December and revised numbers for November.

Small businesses across the United States added 20,000 jobs in December, continuing an overall trend that started two years ago of more small business employers bringing in workers.

The total number of jobs added at small businesses since March 2010 stands at more than 555,000, according to numbers from the Intuit Small Business Employment and Revenue indexes.

Two major indicators of stock market health – the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index and the Dow Jones industrial average – ended 2013 with the highest gains since the end of last century.

The S&P 500 increased by 29.6% in 2013, the index’s best annual performance since 1997. The big jump added $3.75 trillion in market value, according to the New York Times. Meanwhile the Dow Jones jumped by 26.5%, the best performance since 1995.

Consumer spending rose again in November 2013 at the fastest rate since June – the latest in string of good news about the economy.

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that spending by consumers had jumped by .5% in November after a .4% gain in October. The Commerce Department reported that the gain was driven by consumers buying durable goods such as automobiles, furniture and appliances.

A number of factors – including a resurgent automobile industry and an increase in energy industry production – are pointing to an improving economy in 2014, according to predictions from Forbes.

Forbes writer Michael Evans offered a list of factors that have helped the United States experience a “slow but steady recovery” since the end of the Great Recession in 2008.

Business administration is a wide-ranging field that ultimately includes a myriad of management positions. That’s because everyone from the largest corporation to the smallest independent business requires skilled administrators to succeed.

The U.S. economy grew at the best rate in a year and half in the third quarter of 2013, which ended in September.

Revised numbers from the U.S. Department of Commerce show that the nation’s gross domestic product expanded by 3.6%, a number that easily beat the prediction from economists of a 3.1% growth rate.

The number is the highest since a 3.7% expansion in the first quarter of 2012.

Unemployment claims dropped last week, another sign that the economy and the overall job picture may be improving as the country heads into the holiday season.

According to the federal Department of Labor, jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 316,000. Most experts had projected about 330,000 jobless claims, according to an article from Reuters.

First Lady Michelle Obama will kick off a new program this week that aims to encourage more low income Americans to pursue a college degree.

Obama launched the program on Tuesday at Bell Multicultural High School in Washington, D.C.

“I’m here today because I want you to know that my story can be our story. The details might be a little different, but so many of the challenges and triumphs will be just the same,” Obama told students at the school, according to the New York Times.