Harmonised Unemployment Rates (HURs), OECD - June 2014 | WPN World People News

The OECD unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point at 7.4% in April 2014. Around 45 million persons were unemployed in the OECD area as a whole, 4.9 million less than the peak in April 2010, but still 10.3 million more than in July 2008.

OECD Harmonised Unemployment Rates, s.a.

The unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point in the Euro area, to 11.7%, 0.3 percentage point lower than the previous April. Within the Euro area, the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point in Portugal (to 14.6%, the 12th consecutive month of decline), and by 0.1 percentage points in Ireland (to 11.9%) and Spain (to 25.1%) while it increased by 0.1 percentage point in Finland (to 8.5%). Outside the Euro area, the unemployment rate also declined in the United States (by 0.4 percentage point to 6.3%) and Mexico (by 0.1 percentage point to 5.0%). It was stable in Canada (at 6.9%) and Japan (at 3.6%) but increased in Korea (by 0.2 percentage point, to 3.7%). More recent data for May show that the unemployment rate was stable in the United States,while it increased in Canada (by 0.1 percentage point to 7.0%).

The youth unemployment rate declined by 0.6 percentage point to 14.8% in April 2014 with 10.7 million people aged 15-24 unemployed, 1.3 million less than the previous April but still 0.8 million more than in July 2008. Youth unemployment remains exceptionally high in several Euro area countries such as Greece (at 56.9% in February, the latest month available), Spain (at 53.5%), Italy (at 43.3%), Portugal (at 36.1%) and the Slovak Republic (at 32.9%). The unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point for both women (to 7.5%) and men (to 7.3%).

Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development