Dollar falls amid better-than-expected job data

NEW YORK, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The dollar fell against major currencies on Friday as risk appetite in foreign exchange trading was boosted by better-than-expected job data.

Non-farm payroll employment declined by 539,000 in April, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Friday. It was the smallest decline in six months, less than a loss of 620,000 expected by analysts and far below the 699,000 drop in March. The unemployment rate rose from 8.5 percent to 8.9 percent, the highest since late 1983.

The report showed that the labor market was still deteriorating, but the rate of decline was moderating, analysts said. About half of the improvement from March came in the government sector, as it hired temporary workers for preparatory work on the 2010 Census. The rest of the improvement was widely spread across the private sector.

There were indications that the industry's headlong decline is bottoming out, as the manufacturing workweek rose for the first time since July 2008, and manufacturing overtime rose for the first time since November 2007.

Investors' risk appetite was also helped by the results of the U.S. government's stress test, which showed better-than-expected picture of health of major U.S. banks. The government said 10 of the 19 largest U.S. banks must raise about 74.6 billion U.S. dollars in new capital, less than some had feared.

The euro bought 1.3622 dollars in late New York trading compared with 1.3373 dollars it bought late Thursday. The pound rose to 1.5215 dollars from 1.4996 dollars.

The dollar fell to 1.1513 Canadian dollars from 1.1740 Canadian dollars, and fell to 1.1065 Swiss francs from 1.1309 Swiss francs. It fell to 98.40 Japanese yen from 98.99 Japanese yen.