For now, the country appears to be fully employed. People have high enough disposable incomes to pay bills, buy groceries, keep Amazon crazy busy daily, enjoy entertainment, and have enough left off to travel and keep the economy bustling.
A few weeks ago, the GDP print (positive) also beat expectations. However, since then certain parts of the economy have slowed enough that interest rates have fallen by over 70 bp on the 10-year Treasury (from 5% in October to 7.24% yesterday). Has the Fed engineered a soft landing? For now, it appears so.
In fact, many of the leading economists believe that the economy will avoid a recession so long as job creation and GDP stay positive, even if in low positive monthly changes.
There are other analysts, however, that believe we may be headed for a hard landing.