Investing.com - The Australian dollar slipped lower against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, after the release of mixed Australian employment data and as investors continued to eye Friday's highly-anticipated U.S. nonfarm payrolls report.
AUD/USD hit 0.7322 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since Tuesday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7336, shedding 0.27%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7261, the low of August 4 and resistance at 0.7429, the high of August 4.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday that the number of employed people rose by 38,500 in July, beating expectations for an increase of 10,000. The number of employed people ose by 7,000 in June, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated gain of 7,300.
The report also showed that Australia's unemployment rate ticked up to 6.3% last month from 6.1% in June, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated rate of 6.0%. Analysts had expected an unemployment rate of 6.0% in July.
Meanwhile, investors were eyeing the upcoming U.S. jobs report for July, which could reinforce expectations for higher interest rates by the Federal Reserve.
The greenback weakened after payroll processing firm ADP reported on Thursday that U.S. non-farm private employment rose 185,000 last month, below expectations for an increase of 215,000.
The Aussie was also lower against the euro, with EUR/AUD gaining 0.41% to 1.4886.