By CountingPips.com
The US dollar has been on the defensive today against the other major currencies in the forex market following the eagerly awaited government employment report that showed US jobs fell for a second straight month. The dollar has lost ground against the euro, British pound sterling, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and Swiss 
franc while trading higher against the Canadian dollar in the early going of the US trading session.
The US stock markets, meanwhile, have also started off the day with declines as the Dow Jones industrial average fell lower by over 100 points while the NASDAQ and S&P 500 have declined by approximately 35 points and 15 points, respectively. Gold has made gains higher by $13.50 to trade at the $1210.70 level while crude oil has been declining to the $80.99 level.
The US government nonfarm payrolls report, released by the US Department of Labor, showed that US jobs declined by 131,000 workers in July following the revised decline of 221,000 workers in June. The July report was worse than expected as market forecasters were looking for 65,000 jobs lost and marked the second consecutive month of job losses following five straight monthly increases. June’s report was revised from the original 125,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate remained the same at 9.5% after falling from 9.7% in June as the total number of workers looking for work was essentially unchanged at 14.6 million workers.
The private sector created 71,000 jobs in July but that was offset by a decline in the temporary census government worker positions by 143,000 jobs. The private sector increase for July follows a revised gain of 31,000 private sector 
jobs for June. Overall for 2010, the private sector employment payrolls have increased by 630,000 workers.
The goods producing sector increased by 33,000 jobs in July as manufacturing jobs added 36,000 workers while construction jobs decreased for third straight month by 11,000 positions. Mining and logging also managed to add 8,000 workers to the goods producing sector.
The service sector added 38,000 jobs for the month with healthcare positions increasing by 27,000 workers. Professional and business services cut 13,000 workers and financial activities lost 17,000 workers.
Government employment decreased by 202,000 workers for the month as the loss of temporary centers workers contributed heavily to this category and to the overall monthly job loss. This is a second straight month the government payroll has lost over 200,000 workers following June’s decline of 252,000 workers as the temporary census jobs end.
FOREX: EUR/USD Daily Chart – The Euro (EUR/USD) continuing to advance higher today versus the US dollar to above the 1.3300 exchange rate for the first time since early May. This marks a new 3-month high and has the Euro increasing against the dollar for the sixth straight week.
