U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls fall more than expected in October. Unemployment rate hits 14-year high. US Dollar falls in Forex Trade. | CountingPips Forex Blog

November 7, 2008 - Forex Economic News

U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls fall more than expected in October. Unemployment rate hits 14-year high. US Dollar falls in Forex Trade.

U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls employment data released today showed that jobs fell much more than expected in October and declined for the tenth straight month. The Department of Labor nonfarm payrolls report showed that U.S. payrolls shed 240,000 jobs in October following a revised drop of 284,000 jobs in September. The September payrolls data had originally showed a drop of 159,000 jobs for the month while August's jobs data was also revised to USD falls in Forex Trading show a decline of 127,000 jobs compared to the decline of 73,000 originally released. Economic forecasts were expecting a job loss of 200,000 workers for October.

The unemployment rate rose to a 14-year high in October at 6.5 percent from 6.1 percent. The unemployment rate increase also surpassed market forecasts expecting the rate to increase to 6.2 percent.

October was the tenth straight month that companies shed workers and brought the total of lost jobs to 651,000 since August. On an annual basis, nonfarm payrolls has shed 2.8 million jobs and the unemployment rate has risen by 1.7 percentage points from October 2007.

Manufacturing continued to be the hardest hit by job losses in October, shedding 90,000 jobs while construction jobs also fell by 49,000 workers. Professional business and services shed 45,000 jobs while retail trade also showed a decline of 38,000 jobs for the month. Government employment led the way in job creation in October adding 23,000 jobs while education and health services also added 21,000 jobs.

Hourly earnings showed a rise of 0.2 percent or 4 cents in October and have shown a rise of rise of 8 cents since October 2007.

Forex - US Dollar falls in trading against most majors, rises vs. yen.

The U.S. dollar has been losing ground today in the forex market as the dismal jobs data weighed on the American currency. The dollar has declined against the euro, pound, aussie, kiwi and Canadian loonie in forex market trading while gaining against the Japanese yen. The euro has increased slightly from today's opening to trading at 1.2757 dollars per euro in the afternoon of the US trading session at 1:00pm ET. The British pound has also gained from today's opening exchange rate of approximately 1.5677 dollars per pound to trading at approximately 1.5725. Also gaining ground verses the dollar today is the aussie dollar at 0.6718, the kiwi dollar at 0.5891 and the Canadian loonie at 1.1814. The U.S. dollar has gained today against the Japanese yen as the USD/JPY has gained from its 97.37 opening exchange rate to trading at 98.08 yen per dollar. Against the Swiss franc today, the dollar has been virtually unchanged and trading at the exchange rate of 1.1775.

USD/CAD Chart - The US Dollar falls against the Canadian Loonie today in forex trading(Daily Chart).

Today's Forex Chart

tags: us jobs, employment, payrolls, forex market, trading

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