The much anticipated U.S. Non-farm payrolls data were released today, lower than expected. May’s reading was much lower at a mere 54,000 jobs created.The consensus forecast for U.S. non-farm payrolls was 150,000 last month, down from a revised 232,000 jobs in April.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate was expected to slip to 8.9 percent from 9.0 percent in the previous month. Today’s data came out higher at 9.1% for May.
The Non-farm payroll data is compiled by the Bureau of Labour Statistic on a monthly basis and measures the change in the number of employed people during the previous month, excluding the farming industry.
This jobs data is one of the key macro economic indicators most market players look at because job creation is an important leading indicator of consumer spending, which accounts for a majority of overall economic activity.
Weak U.S. jobs data signal a protracted soft patch in one of the world’s largest economies and weigh further on the U.S. currency. The U.S. has already released a spate of other weak economic data recently and on Thursday, Moody’s Investor Service threatened to cut the U.S. credit rating if the government does not raise its debt limit in order to avoid default.
Upon release of the news at 12:30 GMT, the Dollar fell by 35 pips against the Euro. EURUSD jumped to 1.4529 from 1.4494.
Sterling rises 33 pips against the greenback, from 1.6323 to 1.6357.
USDJPY drops from 80.62 to 80.04
Spot gold hits a session high at $1,541.73, gaining over $14 from $1,527.68.
