The employment market has strengthened in recent months, and that trend will continue into next year, says CNBC commentator Ron Insana.

The economy added 203,000 jobs in November, and the jobless rate dropped to a five-year low of 7 percent.

"Particularly as we get later into the economic cycle, hiring tends to pick up," Insana tells MSNBC.

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"We're starting to see companies from around the world bring manufacturing work to the United States, because energy costs, particularly natural gas, which is such a big input in manufacturing, are so low relative to the rest of the world. So I do think that's a bright spot for the U.S. economy."

The energy boom will spark a manufacturing renaissance, Insana says. And that's all good for the labor market.

"There would have to be a monumental setback of some kind for employment not to improve, like [interest] rates spiking or China tanking," he argues.

"That may be a possibility with China, but generally I think the unemployment situation should improve still beyond what we saw this year."

Regarding the stock market, he says, "I think 2014 will be a year of transition where the market gets comfortable with the transition to stronger growth, higher interest rates, which may spark a correction of some magnitude.

"There could be more volatility next year than we saw this year."

U.S. jobless claims dropped to 338,000 last week, the lowest level in almost a month.

"With labor markets on the mend and consumer confidence on the rise, we look for broader economic improvement to continue pushing claims [lower]," Gennadiy Goldberg, an analyst at TD Securities in New York, tells Reuters.

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