Talking Points:
- US economy added +215K jobs in July with an upward revision for June
- Unemployment rate stable at 5.3%
- EURUSD trades as low as $1.0859 after the report
Non-farm payrolls came largely in line with market expectations for July. The labor market added +215K jobs in July just missing 225K expectations by Bloomberg News economists. The July NFP came with an upward revision of +8K for last month – rising to 231K from 223K. The unemployment rate stayed stable at 5.3%. July NFPs were particularly important as the first of two NFP reports prior to the September FOMC – at which some speculators believe, a rate hike is possible.
The strong jobs report came at the expense of the EURUSD pair, which plummeted, on the back of the data. EURUSD fell from $1.0972 just before the data to $1.0859 a few minutes after. The pair found support at $1.0857. EURUSD is currently trading at $1.0863 at the time of writing.
Here’s a summary of the critical jobs data on August 7, 2015:
- Change in Nonfarm Payrolls (July): +215K vs +225K expected, from 231K (revised higher from +223K).
- Change in Private Payrolls (July): +210K vs +212K expected, from 227K
- Unemployment Rate (July): 5.3% vs 5.3%, from 5.3%
See the DailyFX economic calendar for a full summary of real-time economic data
Nonfarm Payrolls is a monthly jobs report and considered the foremost economic indicator for the labor market in the US. Unemployment rate measures the number of individuals in the labor force without a job. Both data prints are priced highly by market participants due to the importance of the labor market in the US economy.