The Daily Money: A soft landing for the economy?

Happy Friday, The Daily Money readers! This is Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy bringing you today's top headlines.

The economy continues to show signs of strength even as the job market has been gradually cooling, increasing chances for a soft landing the Federal Reserve had hoped for as it raised interest rates 11 times to tamp down inflation.

Employers added 199,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell from 3.9% to 3.7%, the Labor Department said Friday.

Economists had estimated that 186,000 jobs were added last month, according to a Bloomberg survey.

The increase in employment includes striking auto workers and actors who returned to their jobs.

Average hourly earnings rose 12 cents to $34.10, keeping the yearly at 4%, down from a high of 5.9% last year. That’s good news for a Federal Reserve seeking to slow increases that are feeding into inflation. Fed officials would like to see wage growth ease to 3.5% to align with their 2% overall inflation goal. Wage growth topped 5% last year amid severe COVID-related labor shortages.

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Each weekday, The Daily Money delivers the best consumer news from Paste BN. We break down financial news and provide the TLDR version: how decisions by the Federal Reserve, government and companies impact you.