By CountingPips.com
The British pound sterling has declined sharply today in forex trading as a government employment report declined by more than expected in the three months through October. The latest employment data showed that the UK lost 35,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rose to 7.9 percent in the August through October 2010 timeframe, according to the UK Office of National Statistics. This was the first time since April that the unemployment rate had increased and brought the number of unemployed workers to a total of 2.50 million.
The unemployment rate increase surpassed market forecasters by 0.2 percent as the consensus expected the rate to stay at the 7.7 percent level.
The British currency has felt the effects of today’s employment news and has been pummeled virtually across-the-board. The pound sterling has dropped versus the US dollar, euro, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar, according to currency data in the afternoon of the US trading session.
GBP/USD Hourly Chart – The pound sterling has fallen against the US dollar by approximately 200 pips today as the GBP/USD currency pair has declined from the 1.5762 opening to currently trading near the 1.5543 exchange rate. The pair has now fallen to its lowest level since December 2nd.
