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

The OECD unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point to 7.4% in July 2014. Across the OECD area, 44.8 million people were unemployed, 5.1 million less than the peak recorded in April 2010 but still 10.2 million more than in July 2008.

OECD Harmonised Unemployment Rates, s.a.

The unemployment rate was stable in the Euro area, at 11.5%, with little change from the previous month in most countries, except in Italy where it increased by 0.3 percentage point (to 12.6%) and in Slovenia where it fell by 0.3 percentage point (to 9.8%).

In July, the unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage point in Japan (to 3.8%) and the United States (to 6.2%), by 0.3 percentage point in Mexico (to 5.2%) and by 0.4 percentage point in Australia (to 6.4%). By contrast, it decreased by 0.1 percentage point in Canada (to 7.0%) and by 0.2 percentage point in Korea (to 3.4%). More recent data for August show that the unemployment rate fell in the United States (by 0.1 percentage point to 6.1%),while it was stable in Canada.

The OECD unemployment rate for women (at 7.5%) was 0.2 percentage point higher than that for men (at 7.3%). The unemployment rate for youth was stable at 14.9%, 2.4 percentage points below the peak recorded in October 2009 but 1.9 percentage points higher than in July 2008. Youth unemployment remains exceptionally high in several Euro area countries such as Spain (at 53.8%), Greece (at 53.1% in May, the latest month available), Italy (at 42.9%), Portugal (at 35.5%) and the Slovak Republic (at 31.7%).

Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development