The dollar fell against the yen on Thursday after government reports showed softness in employment and personal spending ahead of a jobs report tomorrow.

The dollar fell to 106.45 yen per dollar compared to 106.22 yesterday. The dollar rose against the euro to $1.4848 per euro at 12:40 p.m. The Euro fell against the yen to 158.08 per euro from from 157.65 per euro.

Reversing a four consecutive week drop, the number of people filing jobless claims grew by 69,000 to 375,000 for the week ended Jan. 26. Economists had expected only 17,000 claims.

Personal spending grew 0.2 percent in December compared to downwardly revised growth of 1 percent in November. Economists had predicted that spending would grow twice as much to 0.4 percent.

Meanwhile, economists expect that a U.S. payroll report to be released tomorrow is will show that the U.S. economy added 63,000 jobs in January compared with only 18,000 in December.

European union Unemployment