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OECD unemployment rate stable at 8.2% in February 2012

11/04/2012 - The OECD area unemployment rate was 8.2% in February 2012, and has remained broadly at this level since January 2011.

The euro area unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point (for the eighth consecutive month) to 10.8% in February, maintaining a record high since the start of the global financial crisis. Within the euro area, unemployment rates rose by 0.1 percentage point in Austria (to 4.2%) and Luxembourg (to 5.2%); by 0.2 percentage point in Italy (to 9.3%) and Portugal (to 15.0%); and by 0.3 percentage point in Spain (to 23.6%). They fell by 0.1 percentage point in Finland (to 7.4%) and the Netherlands (to 4.9%).

Unemployment rates remained stable in all other euro area countries. The unemployment rate for Spain is the highest in the OECD area.