国际英语新闻：Dollar dips amid U.S. non-farm employment data

NEW YORK, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The dollar dipped against most major currencies on Friday as U.S. non-farm employment data in August boosted risk appetite.

    Non-farm payrolls fell by 216,000 in August, smaller than expected, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Friday. It was the smallest monthly decline in a year. The Unemployment jumped unexpectedly by 0.3 percentage points to 9.7 percent, the highest in 26 years.

    The report added to evidence that U.S. labor market improved with slower paces of job loss, but remains very weak. Job cuts continued in most sectors in August, except education and health care industries.

    Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 7.4 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 4.8 percentage points.

    The dollar strengthened in early trading as the surprise jump in unemployment rate weighed on market sentiment. The U.S. currency lost grounds later as investors turned to focus on positive signs in the job report.

    The euro bought 1.4309 dollars in late New York trading compared with 1.4251 dollars it bought late Thursday. The pound rose to 1.6399 dollars from 1.6320 dollars.

    The dollar fell to 1.0862 Canadian dollars from 1.1039 Canadian dollars, and fell to 1.0605 Swiss francs from 1.0626 Swiss francs. It rose to 93.02 Japanese yen from 92.57 Japanese yen.