The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), just released the employment data that manifests the tendencies in the American labour market for December 2019. Expectedly, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.5 per cent.
Nevertheless, fewer jobs were added during the last month of the previous year than initially anticipated.
According to the findings of the labour report, the American economy has been able to add 145 000 jobs in December vs 162 000 expected.
Additionally, the recorded performance for December is ostensibly weaker compared to the 266 000 jobs that were added in November.
It was further revealed that notable jobs gains were registered in the retail trade sector.
These findings are in accordance with our projections from earlier this week when we argued that due to the expected increase in Christmas shopping for the festive period, growth in the retail sector could be anticipated.
Negative revisions in the labour force were also carried out for the months of October and November.
“The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for October was revised down by 4,000 from +156,000 to +152,000, and the change for November was revised down by 10,000 from +266,000 to +256,000. With these revisions, employment gains in October and November combined were 14,000 lower than previously reported.”
Overall, the positive takeaway from the first Non-Farm Payrolls report for 2020 is that the general unemployment remained unchanged at 3.5 per cent, which is the strongest performance of the American labour market on record for the past half a century.
Nevertheless, the pace of employment growth diminished in December, which lessened the impact of an otherwise robust jobs report.
The dollar was hit immediately following the release of the statement; however, it did not lose much of its strength against other major currencies.
The EURUSD continues to exhibit bearish sentiment, as determined by the daily price chart.
The price of the pair is currently attempting to break down below the support level at 1.10906, which is also the 38.2 per cent Fibonacci Retracement Level.