US President Barack Obama has had positive words to say about the state of the US economy after the US jobless rate fell.

Speaking at a window factory in Maryland, Obama said there were signs that the US economy is heading to a full recovery. He said the decline in the jobless rate in December from 9.8 per cent to 9.4 per cent was positive news.

"The economy added more than 100,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate fell sharply. Now, we know these numbers can bounce around from month to month. But the trend is clear. We saw 12 straight months of private sector job growth. That's the first time that's been true since 2006. The economy added 1.3 million jobs last year," Obama said.

But, the President said the economy has not yet improved sufficiently to prompt more aggressive job hiring.

"Even though our economy is recovering, we've still got a lot to do. This was a brutal recession that we went through, the worst in our lifetimes... We've got a big hole that we're digging ourselves out of. And so our mission has to be to accelerate hiring and to accelerate growth," he said.

The unemployment rate fell to 9.4 per cent, the lowest since May 2009 and down from 9.8 per cent in November. It was the biggest monthly drop in the rate since April 1998.

Source - Yahoo.