Harmonised Unemployment Rates (HURs), OECD - Updated: May 2013

The OECD unemployment rate decreased to 8.0% in March 2013, compared with 8.1% in the previous month. However, this small decline masks diverging patterns across countries.

Growing risk of inequality and poverty as crisis hits the poor hardest

Income inequality increased by more in the first three years of the crisis to the end of 2010 than it had in the previous twelve years, before factoring in the effect of taxes and transfers on income, according to new OECD data.

Korea should boost support for laid-off workers

Korea should strengthen its social safety net and improve support for laid-off workers to help them find a new job more quickly, according to a new OECD report.

Employment situation, fourth quarter 2012, OECD

The OECD area employment rate – defined as the share of people of working-age who are employed – was 65.1% in the fourth quarter of 2012, 0.1 percentage point higher than in the previous quarter and 0.2 percentage points higher than one year ago.

Harmonised Unemployment Rates (HURs), OECD - Updated: April 2013

The OECD unemployment rate decreased to 8.0% in February 2013, compared with 8.1% in the previous month. The unemployment rate in the euro area was stable (at 12.0%) in February, but still 1.1 percentage point higher than its mid-90’s peak.

System of unit labour cost, OECD - Updated: March 2013

Growth in Unit labour costs (ULCs) in the OECD area accelerated to 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to 0.2% in the third quarter. Overall, growth in labour compensation per unit of labour input slowed marginally (to 0.3% compared to 0.4% in the third quarter). But this was more than offset by a significant slowdown in labour productivity (minus 0.3% compared to plus 0.2% in the previous quarter).

Harmonised Unemployment Rates (HURs), OECD - Updated: March 2013

The OECD unemployment rate increased to 8.1% in January 2013, compared with 8.0% in the previous month.

Norway should reform its welfare system to help people with mental health issues stay in work

Norway should overhaul its approach to mental health issues in the workplace in order to help more people find a job or stay in work, and cut high and rising public spending, according to a new OECD report.

Sweden: Tackling mental health problems is critical to boosting job prospects of young Swedes

Sweden should make greater efforts to prevent and address mental health problems among people under the age of 30, in order to boost their job prospects and reduce government spending on health care and out-of-work benefits, according to a new OECD report.

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• Sverige: Någonting måste göras åt den psykiska ohälsan för att förbättra förutsättningarna för svenska ungdomar att få jobb

Labour market reforms in Denmark must tackle mental health issues

Ongoing reforms of Denmark’s disability benefits and flexjobs are promising, but a stronger focus on helping people with their mental health issues is needed for the reforms to contribute to a sustainable decline in the high rate of unemployment, according to a new OECD report. Past labour market reforms failed because underlying mental health problems of the jobless remained unaddressed.