By CountingPips.com
U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls employment data released today showed that jobs declined much less than market forecasts were expecting in May signaling that the deep decline in employment is slowing. The Department of Labor nonfarm payrolls report showed that U.S. payrolls shed 345,000 jobs in May following a revised decrease of 504,000 jobs in April.
May marked the seventeenth straight month that companies have shed workers but the first month since October 2008 with under 400,000 job losses. The 
unemployment rate continued to increase as the rate went from 8.9 percent in April to 9.4 percent in May and brought the rate to its highest standing in 26 years.
The May job report was much better than the market forecasts that were expecting a loss of approximately 520,000 jobs but the unemployment rate figure was worse than forecasts expecting the unemployment rate to reach 9.2 percent.
April’s job decline was revised lower to show a loss of 504,000 jobs after originally registering a loss of 539,000. The amount of jobs lost since December 2007 has now totaled 7.0 million and the unemployment rate has increased by 4.5 percent according to the Labor Department.
The decline in jobs was spread throughout most economic sectors with the goods producing sector losing a total of 225,000 jobs. Within this sector, construction job losses slowed to a decline of 59,000 while manufacturing employment saw a decrease of 156,000. The service-providing sector lost 120,000 total jobs in May with professional & business services shedding 51,000 workers and retail trade cutting 18,000 workers. On the positive side, the education & health services sector saw 44,000 jobs created while the leisure & hospitality sector gained 3,000 jobs for the month.
U.S. Dollar gaining today in Forex Trading.
The U.S. dollar has been stronger in forex trading against the major currencies after today’s employment report. The dollar has gained against the euro, Australian dollar, Swiss franc, New Zealand dollar, British pound and Japanese yen.
The euro has fallen in trading versus the dollar from today’s 1.4200 opening at 00:00 GMT to trading at approximately 1.3984 in the US trading session at 11:44pm EST according to currency data by Oanda.
The British pound has declined versus the dollar as the GBP/USD has gone from its 1.6129 opening rate to trading at 1.6007 in the U.S. session.
The dollar has advanced against the Japanese yen as the USD/JPY has risen from its 96.73 opening to trading at 98.16 today.
The Australian dollar has declined versus the USD with the AUD/USD trading at 0.8009 after opening today at 0.8037. The New Zealand dollar has also lost ground versus the US dollar as the NZD/USD trades at 0.6316 after opening the day at the 0.6355 exchange rate.
Against the Swiss franc, the USD has been gained almost 200 pips today as the USD/CHF has jumped from its 1.0677 opening to trading at 1.0854. The dollar has increased against the Canadian dollar after the USD/CAD opened at 1.0982 earlier today to trading at 1.1141.
EUR/USD Chart – The Euro declining against the US Dollar in Forex Trading today and falling below the bullish trendline on the 4-hour chart.
