OECD unemployment rate down to 6.2% in October 2016 | WPN World People News

The OECD unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point to 6.2% in October 2016, 1.9 percentage points below the January 2013 peak. Across the OECD area, 38.8 million people were unemployed, 10.2 million less than in January 2013, but still 6.2 million more than in April 2008, before the crisis.

In October 2016, the euro area unemployment rate declined by 0.1 percentage point, to 9.8%, 2.3 percentage points below the peak recorded in April 2013. Within the euro area, the unemployment rate declined most, by 0.2 percentage point, in Austria (to 5.9%), France (to 9.7%), Ireland (to 7.5%), Latvia (to 9.5%) and the Slovak Republic (to 9.1%).

Beyond the euro area, the unemployment rate in October 2016 remained stable in Canada (at 7.0%) and Japan (at 3.0%) while it decreased in Mexico (by 0.3 percentage point, to 3.6%) and in the United States (by 0.1 percentage point, to 4.9%). More recent data show that in November 2016 the unemployment rate declined further in the United States (by 0.3 percentage point, to 4.6%), while it also declined in Canada (by 0.2 percentage point, to 6.8%).

The OECD unemployment rate for youth (people aged 15 to 24) remained stable at 12.8% in October. It also remained stable in the euro area (at 20.7%), with diverging developments across countries. Whilethe youth unemployment rate decreased by 0.4 percentage point in Italy (to 36.4%), it increased by 0.7 percentage point in Spain (to 43.6%, following five consecutive months of decline), and by 0.4 percentage point in France (to 25.8%).

Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development