The Australian dollar is under pressure today after strong employment numbers from the US on Friday bolstered the case for the US Federal Reserve to lift interest rates at their next board meeting.

At 6pm (GMT) the Aussie dollar was trading at US69.30c and threating to push down below the US69c mark.

Although the US nonfarm payrolls figure came in below expectations, the jobless rate fell to a new 8 year low of 5.1%, and more importantly wage growth increased to 0.3%, clearing one of the last hurdles for the US Fed to move on rates.

Richard Yetsenga, the head of global currency forecasting at ANZ Bank, said the Australian dollar was likely to come under further pressure as the market gears up for higher rates in the US.

“From our perspective we continue to expect the Fed to hike in September, although it is a close run thing despite payrolls on balance being robust enough.” he said.

 “Even if delivered gently, a Fed hike on September 17 will be negative for the Australian dollar,” he added.

The Australian dollar broke down below the psychological US70c barrier 3 times in the last week and is poised to stay there unless some unexpected news hits the market.

The US69.80c level was a significant support level recently but this number is now likely to turn into a new resistance level.