OECD unemployment rate stable at 5.6% in November 2017 | WPN World People News

The OECD unemployment rate was stable at 5.6% in November 2017. Across the OECD area, 35.1 million people were unemployed, 2.5 million more than in April 2008.

In the euro area, the unemployment rate continued to decrease (down 0.1 percentage point, to 8.7% in November), with the largest declines (by 0.2 percentage point) in Ireland (to 6.1%) and Portugal (to 8.2%). Smaller declines were recorded in Belgium (to 6.7%), France (to 9.2%), Germany (to 3.6%), Italy (to 11.0%), Latvia (to 8.1%), the Netherlands (to 4.4%) and the Slovak Republic (to 7.5%).

The unemployment rate also fell in Canada (by 0.4 percentage point, to 5.9%) and Japan (by 0.1 percentage point, to 2.7%) while it was stable in the United States (at 4.1%) and rose marginally in Korea (to 3.7%) and Mexico (to 3.5%). More recent data show that in December, the unemployment rate declined further in Canada (by 0.2 percentage point, to 5.7%) while it was stable in the United States.

In November, the OECD unemployment rate for youth (people aged 15 to 24) increased by 0.1 percentage point, to 11.9%. By contrast, in the euro area, the youth unemployment ratefell by 0.2 percentage point, to 18.2%, continuing its downward trend, with the largest declines in Italy (down 1.3 percentage point), Portugal (down 0.9 percentage point)and the Slovak Republic (down 0.6 percentage point). However, the youth unemployment rate was still above 30% in Greece (39.5% in September, the latest month available), Spain (37.9%) and Italy (32.7%). The OECD unemployment rate for women (unchanged at 5.8%) remained slightly above that for men (which fell by 0.1 percentage point, to 5.4%).

Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development