240,000 lost US jobs in October hurts greenback

The US dollar declined Friday on new data from the Labor Department showing a loss of 240,000 jobs, more than expected, in the United States in October, bringing the total job loss in the US to 1.2 million since the beginning of January.

The Labor Department also said that the unemployment rate reached 6.5 percent in October, its highest since 1994.

This news came after a report Thursday which showed that 3.843 million people in the US received an unemployment check in the week ending 25 October, the highest number to get checks in a week in 25 years.

In late morning trade in New York, the dollar traded at $1.2789 to the euro while it cost ¥98.125 to buy a dollar.

The Canadian dollar was also up versus the greenback, to C$1.1766 to the US dollar, after Statistics Canada reported that Canada added 9,500 jobs in October against an expected decrease of 10,000 jobs.

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