The Australian currency opened a little stronger on Monday after dismal US unemployment data was released Friday night (AEST).

At 0700 AEST today, the local unit was trading at $US0.9192/93, an increase from last week's finish of $US0.9170/73.

Since 1700 AEST on Friday, the domestic dollar ranged from $US0.9139 to $US0.9222.

The US non-farm payrolls report indicated the US economy lost more jobs than forecast in July, raising worries that the world's largest economy will need years to fully recuperate from recession.

Officials said a total of 131,000 jobs were slashed and the unemployment rate stayed at 9.5 per cent last month as federal and local governments reduced jobs.

According to Westpac New Zealand senior market strategist Imre Speizer, the US payrolls data had hit the greenback more than most other currencies.

"When you have US data releases, if they're moderately positive or negative the Aussie tends to follow that. When you have something extremely positive or negative, which in this case it was, it actually tends to hurt the US dollar more than anything else.

"So against that, you had high risk currencies like the Aussie and the Kiwi actually rising, he said.

"There was possibly some explanation behind that, (in that) you also had US equity markets rebounding later in the session and there's more speculation of some further easing measures from the Fed (US Federal Reserve) when they meet this week."

Mr Speizer predicted the local dollar to keep rising for the next couple of days.

"It's showing no signs of turning around just yet. It's been fairly impressively rising at least since the beginning of July.