By CountingPips.com
The U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls employment report reversed the trend of the last couple months by coming in worse than expected and the unemployment rate bumped up to a 26-year high in September. The Department of Labor nonfarm payrolls report showed that U.S. payrolls shed 263,000 jobs in September, surpassing market forecasts expecting an approximately 175,000 jobs lost and marking the twenty-first straight month that companies have shed workers. August’s employment decline was revised from the original report of 216,000 jobs 
lost to a 201,000 decline. The unemployment rate moved up from 9.7 percent in August to 9.8 percent last month and bringing the rate to its highest standing since June 1983.
The July and August employment reports had been better than economic forecasts, spurring optimism that September’s report would continue to show improvement.
The decline in jobs was spread throughout most economic sectors with the exception of the education & health services sector which saw 3,000 jobs created in September. The service-providing sector was the hardest hit by job losses for the month as this sector lost 147,000 total jobs with professional & business services shedding 8,000 workers, retail trade cutting 39,000 workers and leisure & hospitality losing 9,000 workers for the month. Government employment also declined by 53,000. The goods-producing sector lost 116,000 jobs for the month as the manufacturing sector cut 51,000 jobs and the construction sector lost 64,000 jobs.
A separate release today showed that factory orders in the U.S. fell by more than expected and by the most in five months. August orders to U.S. factories fell by 0.8 percent after increasing by a revised 1.4 percent in July according to the Commerce Department. Market forecasts were expecting a 0.7 percent rise after four straight months of increases. Contributing to the fall in August was a 42.6 percent decline in commercial aircraft orders.
US Dollar is mixed in forex trading today.
The U.S. dollar has been mixed in forex trading today against the other major currencies following the government jobs report. The dollar started off trading higher overnight but has lost ground after the job report was released. Overall at 1:45pm in the US trading session, the dollar has been stronger versus the Australian dollar and Japanese yen while falling against the euro, British pound, Canadian dollar and New Zealand dollar.
EUR/USD Chart – The Euro gaining against the US Dollar in fluctuating trading action today. The Euro fell below the 1.4490 exchange rate in early trading today only to shoot back over 1.4640 later and has settled in trading around the 1.4600 area in the US afternoon.
