Breaking: US adds 266,000 jobs in April vs. 978,000 expected

FXStreet Team FXStreet

Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) in the US rose only by 266,000 in April, the data published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed on Friday. This reading followed March's increase of 770,000 (revised from 916,000) and missed the market expectation of 978,000 by a wide margin.

Follow our live coverage of the US jobs report and the market reaction.

Further details of the press release revealed that the Unemployment Rate rose to 6.1%, compared to analysts' estimate of 5.8%, and the Average Hourly Earnings increased by 0.7% on a monthly basis.

"The labor force participation rate was little changed at 61.7% in April and is 1.6 percentage points lower than in February 2020," the publication read.

Market reaction

With the initial market reaction, the greenback came under strong selling pressure and the US Dollar Index was last seen losing 0.36% on a daily basis at 90.56.

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