NEW YORK, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar decreased against other major currencies on Friday, as investors digested the newly released jobs report which showed the country's labor market experienced its first contraction in seven years.
U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 33,000 in September, largely due to hurricanes Harvey and Irma that hit the country, the Labor Department said Friday in a report. Economists polled by Reuters had estimated an increase of 90,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate, however, declined to 4.2 percent in September, hitting a 16-year low, said the report.
In September, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 12 cents to 26.55 U.S. dollars, beating market consensus. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 74 cents, or 2.9 percent.
"The primary take away from this morning's employment report is don't take away too much from this morning's employment report until you put it in a larger context. Harvey and Irma's fingerprints are all over it, after all," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note Friday.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.14 percent at 93.827 in late trading.
In late New York trading, the euro rose to 1.1733 dollars from 1.1704 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound lost to 1.3066 dollars from 1.3112 U.S. dollars in the previous session. The Australian dollar fell to 0.7773 dollar from 0.7789 dollar.
The U.S. dollar bought 112.73 Japanese yen, lower than 112.84 yen of the previous session. The U.S. dollar decreased to 0.9785 Swiss franc from 0.9789 Swiss franc, and it moved down to 1.2532 Canadian dollars from 1.2570 Canadian dollars. Enditem
