OECD unemployment rate down to 6.1% in January 2017 | WPN World People News

The OECD unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point to 6.1% in January 2017 after two consecutive months of stability. Across the OECD area, 38.3 million people were unemployed, 5.7 million more than in April 2008, before the crisis.

The unemployment rate was stable in the euro area in January (at 9.6%) with unchanged rates in about half of the countries, and declined by 0.1.percentage point in the European Union (to 8.1%). A 0.2 percentage point decrease was recorded in Ireland (to 6.7%, the eighth consecutive monthly decline), Luxembourg (to 6.1%), the Slovak Republic (to 8.6%, having declined every month for more than one year) and Spain (to 18.2%, with almost continuous declines since the end of 2013).

Outside Europe, the unemployment rate increased in January by 0.1 percentage point in the United States (to 4.8%), while it fell by the same percentage point in Canada (to 6.8%), Japan (to 3.0%) and Mexico (to 3.6%).

Since the peak recorded in early 2013, the OECD unemployment rates for both men and women have declined at a similar pace. In January 2017, the OECD unemployment rate for women (at 6.3%) was 0.3 percentage point higher than that for men (at 6.0%),but with significant differences across countries. In the euro area, the unemployment rate for women was 0.7 percentage point higher than that for men, while it was 0.4 percentage point lower in Japan; in the United States, both rates were at the same level.

Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development