NEW YORK, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The yen fell on Friday after news that U.S. employers cut fewer jobs than expected in August, reinforcing recent data pointing to an economic recovery and dimming safe-haven demand for the Japanese currency.
Major currencies see-sawed earlier as traders said the jobs data was a mixed bag, with light trading ahead of the U.S. Labor Day holiday adding to volatility.
The U.S. economy cut 216,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent, the Labor Department said on Friday. Analysts had expected nonfarm payrolls to drop by 225,000 and the unemployment rate to rise to 9.5 percent. For more see [ID:nL4577554].
"I think it's a little bit mixed in terms of the number and that's fairly evident from the market's reaction afterwards," said Camilla Sutton, senior currency strategist at Scotia Capital in Toronto.
"On the one side is that the unemployment rate climbs significantly higher and that just keeps fears alive that the unemployment rate is still moving higher and will remain high for a longer period of time. However, the payrolls number ... shows that the pace of job losses has declined," she added.
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