By CountingPips.com
U.S. employment data was released today in the form of the ADP National Employment Report and showed that U.S. private employment declined by more than expected in August. The nonfarm private employment decreased by 298,000 workers in August following the revised July decline of 360,000 jobs. July’s data was revised downwards from the original release of 371,000 jobs lost. August’s data was worse than the decline of
250,000 jobs that market forecasts were expecting but August also marked the smallest monthly job decline since September 2008.
The ADP report commented on the job losses saying, “Employment losses are clearly diminishing. Despite recent indications that overall economic activity is stabilizing, employment, which usually trails overall economic activity, is still likely to decline for at least several more months, albeit at a diminishing rate.”
The goods-providing sector showed the largest decline for the month with a loss of 152,000 jobs while the service-producing sector was not far behind with a decline of 146,000 jobs. The manufacturing sector had a loss of 74,000 jobs while construction jobs fell for the 31st straight month with a decline of 73,000 workers. All size of businesses continued to cut jobs in August as large businesses lost 60,000 jobs, medium sized businesses shed 116,000 jobs and small businesses dropped 122,000 jobs.
The market-moving US Nonfarm Payrolls report for August is to be released Friday at 12:30 pm GMT with market forecasts predicting an approximate decline of 225,000 jobs after July’s 247,000 decrease.
US Dollar is mixed in Forex Trading today.
The U.S. dollar has been mixed today against the other major currencies in the spot forex market trading following yesterday’s USD strength. The dollar has been weaker versus the euro, British pound, Australian dollar, Japanese yen and Swiss franc while trading higher versus the Canadian dollar and New Zealand dollar according to currency data from Oanda at 1:54pm EDT.
AUD/USD Chart – The Australian Dollar rising today versus the US Dollar in forex trading after declining sharply in yesterday’s trading. The AUD/USD trades right around the 100-hour (red) and 200-hour (blue) simple moving averages.
