The New Zealand dollar weakened today after the bad employment data showed that optimistic expectations of analysts were totally unwarranted. The negative report sapped strength from the currency that was already weakening.

Experts promised that employment in New Zealand would grow and the unemployment rate would fall. The reality was nowhere near the optimistic predictions. Employment fell by 2,000 jobs (0.1 percent) in the second quarter of this year. The unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point to 6.8 percent. The data was not totally disastrous, but definitely disappointed traders who believed the forecasts.

The kiwi has already started trending down recently and the negative fundamentals will likely add to the downside momentum. Additionally, the poor employment figure should encourage the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to keep the main interest rate near the record low of 2.5 percent.

NZD/USD fell from 0.8154 to 0.8134 and NZD/JPY dropped from 63.94 to 63.84 as of 1:43 GMT today. EUR/NZD was up from 1.5153 to 1.5209.

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