By CountingPips.com
The Australian dollar has surged in forex trading today as Australian employment data rose by more than expected in January. Australian employment increased by 52,700 jobs in January to a total of 10,966,300 employed workers as both full-time and part-time positions advanced, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Full time workers increased by 15,900 while part-time workers climbed by 36,900 for the month. The job report easily surpassed market 
forecasts that were expecting total jobs to increase by 15,000.
December’s employment data was also better than previously estimated as the jobs data was revised higher to show a gain of 37,500 workers. The unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percent in January from 5.5 percent to 5.3 percent as unemployed workers decreased by 22,300 to a total of 612,000.
The unemployment rate decline surpassed market forecasts that were predicting the rate to increase to 5.6 percent.
The jobs news pushed the Australian dollar sharply higher versus the major currencies in the forex markets. The Aussie gained versus the euro, U.S. dollar, British pound, New Zealand dollar, Canadian dollar and the Japanese yen.
The AUD/USD currency pair touched its highest level in eight days while the combination of the jobs report and the euro’s decline on the Greece debt situation has helped propel the EUR/AUD to its lowest trading level since September of 2000.
EUR/AUD Monthly Chart – The Euro continues falling against the Australian Dollar today for the third day in a row. This EUR/AUD is trading at its lowest exchange rate level since September 2000 around the 1.5340 level.
