On Friday, Dollar accelerated its decline after the US Department of Labor published employment data in the country. The euro/dollar currency pair reached its highest level since February at 1.2160.
Contrary to expectations, the monthly report showed an increase in unemployment from 6% to 6.1%, and the number of newly created jobs was almost 25% lower than expected - 266,000 against a million. At the same time, employment in the industry, transport sector and retail trade declined in April. The indicator for March was also revised downwards. While 916,000 new jobs were initially reported, the new estimate is only 770,000. The data came as a shock to market participants, who had expected fundamentally different figures. During the pandemic, the American economy lost 22 million jobs, and about 8 million are still not restored.
The fall in the number of jobs does not in itself indicate the weakness of the US economy. Last week's data showed that the country's productivity jumped in the first quarter of the year, as production growth outpaced the increase in the number of hours worked. Labor productivity in the non-agricultural sector increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.4% compared to the previous quarter. It is generally assumed that the higher the indicator, the more restrained the inflationary pressure. Now the situation is somewhat different, consumer prices are rising rapidly, although it is unlikely that price pressure will last long. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said Friday that price growth will return to normal in the first half of the year.
Signals for trading EUR/USD currency pair
In the forecast, Forex pair Euro/Dollar is expected to decline to the levels of 1.2140, 1.2120 and 1.2100.