diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
index 8590ff872fa..441eb831b85 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/CHANGES.txt
@@ -496,6 +496,9 @@ Release 0.23.6 - UNRELEASED
 
     MAPREDUCE-4813. AM timing out during job commit (jlowe via bobby)
 
+    MAPREDUCE-4279. getClusterStatus() fails with null pointer exception when
+    running jobs in local mode (Devaraj K via bobby)
+
 Release 0.23.5 - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/LocalJobRunner.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/LocalJobRunner.java
index 3756b98df4e..6b876356ca7 100644
--- a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/LocalJobRunner.java
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/LocalJobRunner.java
@@ -67,7 +67,6 @@ import com.google.common.util.concurrent.ThreadFactoryBuilder;
 /** Implements MapReduce locally, in-process, for debugging. */
 @InterfaceAudience.Private
 @InterfaceStability.Unstable
-@SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
 public class LocalJobRunner implements ClientProtocol {
   public static final Log LOG =
     LogFactory.getLog(LocalJobRunner.class);
@@ -686,7 +685,7 @@ public class LocalJobRunner implements ClientProtocol {
    */
   public TaskTrackerInfo[] getActiveTrackers() 
       throws IOException, InterruptedException {
-    return null;
+    return new TaskTrackerInfo[0];
   }
 
   /** 
@@ -695,7 +694,7 @@ public class LocalJobRunner implements ClientProtocol {
    */
   public TaskTrackerInfo[] getBlacklistedTrackers() 
       throws IOException, InterruptedException {
-    return null;
+    return new TaskTrackerInfo[0];
   }
 
   public TaskCompletionEvent[] getTaskCompletionEvents(
diff --git a/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestJobClient.java b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestJobClient.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6fa12da95d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hadoop-mapreduce-project/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/mapred/TestJobClient.java
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.hadoop.mapred;
+
+import java.util.Collection;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.ClusterStatus.BlackListInfo;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.MRConfig;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.server.jobtracker.JTConfig;
+import org.junit.Assert;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+public class TestJobClient {
+  @Test
+  public void testGetClusterStatusWithLocalJobRunner() throws Exception {
+    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
+    conf.set(JTConfig.JT_IPC_ADDRESS, MRConfig.LOCAL_FRAMEWORK_NAME);
+    conf.set(MRConfig.FRAMEWORK_NAME, MRConfig.LOCAL_FRAMEWORK_NAME);
+    JobClient client = new JobClient(conf);
+    ClusterStatus clusterStatus = client.getClusterStatus(true);
+    Collection<String> activeTrackerNames = clusterStatus
+        .getActiveTrackerNames();
+    Assert.assertEquals(0, activeTrackerNames.size());
+    int blacklistedTrackers = clusterStatus.getBlacklistedTrackers();
+    Assert.assertEquals(0, blacklistedTrackers);
+    Collection<BlackListInfo> blackListedTrackersInfo = clusterStatus
+        .getBlackListedTrackersInfo();
+    Assert.assertEquals(0, blackListedTrackersInfo.size());
+  }
+}