The employment numbers suggest the economy is shrugging off the highest interest rates in two decades.
There is growing optimism that the Federal Reserve is on track to deliver a rare ‘soft landing’ — raising borrowing rates enough to cool growth, hiring, and inflation yet not so much as to send the economy into a tailspin.
December’s job gain exceeds the 173,000 that were added in November.
All the numbers show somewhat more progress against inflation than economists had expected.
Wednesday’s numbers, driven by an uptick in the price of goods, are higher than economists had expected as observers await Thursday’s release of consumer price data.
‘Make no mistake,’ one analyst says, ‘Demand is cooling off. … But it’s not a freefall.’
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