harry holzer, a former chief economist for the labor department, now teaches at georgetown university. harry holzer, i'd start with you a i nice sur pris for a change what are the key positives you see. >> the payroll gross numbers of over 240,000 was really much larger than most of us expected it to be. we had a couple of good months already, last couple of months came in at about 150 and then about 200. we expected possibly some sliding back as has often happened in this recovery. the fact that we came in at 240 growth across most sectors of the economy, the dip in unemployment, all of that was positive news sglz. >> brown: you said most sectors, fill that in a little bit. where did you see things that looked particularly good. >> you saw it in manufacturing. also in construction which we haven't seen much of any recovery so far. you saw it at the high end in professional services. but you also saw it at the low end in leisure and hospitality. health care which of course has been strong throughout, so really spread quite nicely across most parts of the economy. >> brown: joel prakke

. >> reporter: labor market expert harry holzer says the economic recovery has been a frustrating two-step-- one step forward, then one back. that pattern may, finally, be about to change. >> we've seen that movie. we keep expecting that movie to keep running, and so when one month's positive numbers are succeeded by another month that is even better, we're pleasantly surprised by that. >> reporter: the economy now appears to have entered the new year by gaining momentum. and that strength appears to be at odds with the modest expectations for growth put forward by federal reserve chairman ben bernanke and his colleagues last month. if the good news continues, university of maryland economist phill swagel says markets will have to rethink whether the federal reserve will be adding new fuel to the recovery. >> it's hard to square the fed's outlook with the last several months of data, which has generally been quite positive. it is hard to understand the idea that the fed might go back into massive bond buying when the economy seems to be healing. >> reporter: even with today's stronger empl