Wage growth slowed this spring, the latest sign that the Federal Reserve might be succeeding in its effort to engineer a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy.Overall compensation costs, including both pay and benefits, rose 1 percent in the second quarter, down from 1.2 percent in the first three months of the year, the Labor Department said Friday. Compensation was up 4.5 percent from a year earlier, the slowest growth in more than a year.A narrower measure, which includes only wages and salaries of private-sector firms, also rose 1 percent, down from 1.2 percent in the first quarter.Smaller pay increases might sound like bad news. But they will be welcomed by policymakers at the Fed, who have been worried tha …
