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By Michael Trinkle, ForexTraders Last week saw key employment figures released in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. Overall, the disappointing data indicated that jobs are being lost in these economies at an even greater rate than was previously thought by market economists, thereby putting whatever economic recovery was underway in each affected country in further jeopardy. Outsourcing Hits U.S. and Canadian Employment Sector Basically, the loss of many jobs in the non-farm sector has been the result of massive outsourcing of manufacturing – and more recently, a significant number of technology jobs – to lower employment cost countries such as India and China. While New Zealand’s economy has been buoyed by its ongoing exports to Japan and China, Canada and the United States seem to be in increasingly dire straights because of the interconnectedness of the two economies. Also hurting the latter two economies is the increasing outsourcing of jobs by corporations based in the United States and Canada to overseas providers. Kiwi Hurt by Surprise Rise in Unemployment The New Zealand Dollar still managed to gain over the Greenback – rising one percent last week – despite a considerably larger than expected 0.8% rise in the Kiwi Unemployment rate. The Unemployment rate, which formerly stood at 6 percent during the last quarter, jumped up to 6.8 percent in the latest release out last week. Furthermore, the Employment Change figure also out last week showed that jobs in New Zealand had decreased by -0.3% versus a rise of 0.5% that had been expected by market economists. U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls Indicate Further U.S. Job Sector Weakness The United States employment situation is even more precarious than New Zealand’s, with Thursday’s report that Initial Jobless Claims had risen to 479K – a three month high – versus an expected 456K and with the previous number revised up to 460k from 457K. Nevertheless, the back breaker for the U.S. Dollar was Friday’s Non-Farm Payrolls, which showed a loss of -131K jobs in the non-farm sector, versus an expected decline of only -63K. While those numbers were fairly dismal on their own, the previous number suffered a large downward revision from -125K, to almost double the amount of jobs lost at -221K. Despite the negative numbers, the U.S. Unemployment Rate managed to hold steady at 9.5% versus a 9.6% market consensus. The Loonie Gets Hit on Canadian Unemployment Rise Following the Non Farm Payrolls release last Friday, the Greenback tanked against every major currency, with the exception of its northern neighbor, the Loonie. Apparently, the market recognized that Canada has its own employment problems to deal with. Just as the U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls were released on Friday, the Canadian Employment Change also showed a significant decline of -9.3K versus an expected increase of 13.7K, while the Canadian Unemployment Rate rose by 0.1% to hit the 8.0% level. Despite employment difficulties in Canada and New Zealand, the Kiwi and Loonie continue to be favored over the Greenback for the simple reason that New Zealand and Canada are producing nations while the United States is still mired deeply in debt. The U.S. Dollar will eventually have its day of reckoning, and that day may soon be at hand. More articles from ForexTraders….