While the economy saw non-farm payrolls increase by 223,000 jobs during the last month of the year, encouragement for the Federal Reserve was also found in the form of moderation in wage growth to 4.6%, from 4.8% in November.
This ‘Goldilocks’ jobs report has rekindled the market’s hopes of a soft landing. Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, termed this optimistic scenario as a ‘slowcession’ while explaining, “This is consistent with the Fed threading the needle of slowing growth sufficiently to slow inflation but not pushing the economy into recession.”
