Another Batch of Soft-Landing Indicators

Both the stock and bond markets cheered this morning's batch of economic indicators. For starters, payroll employment rose 223,000 during December, confirming yesterday's ADP payroll gain of 235,000. In addition, the more volatile household measure of employment jumped 717,000. These numbers might have spooked the financial markets but for the moderation in average hourly earnings inflation, which fell to 4.6% y/y for all workers and 5.0% y/y for production & nonsupervisory workers (chart).

In addition, average weekly hours worked fell sharply during December (chart).