By CountingPips.com
Eurozone employment declined by the most on record in the first quarter of 2009 according to a report by Eurostat today. The 16-nation eurozone saw employment fall by 0.8 percent or 1.22 million workers in the first quarter after a revised 0.4 percent decline in 
the fourth quarter of 2008. The quarterly decline was the largest decline since records began for the eurozone in 1995. On an annual basis, eurozone employment decreased by 1.2 percent from the first quarter of 2008 following a revised annual decrease of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter.
Contributing to the first quarter decline were job losses in Spain by 3.1 percent, Greece by 1.8 percent, Slovakia by 1.9 percent and Portugal by 1.2 percent. Slovenia saw jobs decline by 1.2 percent while the eurozone’s largest economy, Germany, had an employment decline of 0.3 percent. France, the eurozone’s second largest economy, also saw jobs decline by 0.4 percent in the first quarter. On an annual basis, Spain registered the largest employment fall in the EU16 with a 6.4 percent decrease while Malta registered a 1.8 percent employment increase on an annual basis.
Forex Trading – US Dollar, Japanese Yen gain on risk aversion.
The U.S. dollar and Japanese Yen have been higher in forex trading today against the major currencies on risk aversion. The yen has gained versus the euro, pound, franc, aussie, kiwi, loonie and the US dollar while the US dollar has gained versus all the preceding except for the yen.
The euro has fallen versus the dollar today as the EUR/USD has declined from today’s 1.3956 opening at 00:00 GMT to trading at approximately 1.3786 in the afternoon of the US trading session at 2:36pm EST according to currency data by Oanda. The euro (EUR/JPY) has declined against the yen to trading at 134.61 after opening at 137.20.
The British pound has decreased today versus the American currency as the GBP/USD has fallen from the 1.6386 opening to trading at 1.6291 dollars per pound. The GBP/JPY has dropped from 161.10 to trading at 159.14.
The dollar has fallen against the Japanese yen as the USD/JPY has declined from its 98.31 opening to trading at 97.62 yen per usd.
The dollar has advanced higher against the Canadian loonie dollar after the USD/CAD opening at 1.1227 earlier today to trading later at 1.1323. The CAD/JPY has declined from 87.56 to trading at 86.21.
The USD is gaining against the Swiss franc after opening at 1.0820 to trading at the 1.0921 exchange rate while the franc (CHF/JPY) has fallen against the yen from 90.86 to 89.37.
The Australian dollar has declined versus the USD as the AUD/USD has gone from 0.8080 to trading at 0.7930 while the New Zealand dollar has also fallen against the dollar from 0.6376 usd per nzd to trading at 0.6301.
Against the yen, the aussie (AUD/JPY) has decreased from 79.43 to trading at 77.41 and the kiwi (NZD/JPY) has declined from 62.69 to 61.51.
AUD/JPY Chart – The Australian Dollar falling sharply today against the Japanese Yen into oversold territory on the Relative Strength Indicator in Forex Trading (1H Chart).
