Labour statistics

Harmonised Unemployment Rates (HURs), OECD - Updated: January 2009

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OECD Unemployment Rate increases to 6.5% in November 2008

12/01/2009 - The unemployment rate for the OECD area was 6.5% in November 2008, 0.1 percentage point higher than the previous month and 0.8 percentage point higher than a year earlier.

In the Euro area, the unemployment rate was 7.8% in November 2008, 0.1 percentage point higher than the previous month and 0.6 percentage point higher than a year earlier. For the United States the unemployment rate for December 2008 was 7.2%, 0.4 percentage point higher than the previous month and 2.3 percentage points higher than a year earlier. For Japan, the rate was 4.0% in November 2008, 0.3 percentage point higher than the previous month and 0.2 percentage point higher than in November 2007.
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Harmonised unemployment rates for OECD countries

The next publication date of the OECD's harmonised unemployment rates will be on 9 February 2009.

Note that from January 2009 onwards OECD's internationally comparable unemployment rates are referred to as harmonised unemployment rates. This change aligns the terminology with that used by the Statistical Office of the European Communities, which calculates and provides OECD with the unemployment rates for European Union countries and Norway. Harmonised unemployment rates for Mexico, Iceland and Turkey have been added to OECD's Main Economic Indicator (MEI) database dissemination platforms, including the monthly unemployment rate news release, the monthly MEI paper publication and in the OECD.stat online database. Please contact stat.contact@oecd.org for further details.

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For further information, journalists are invited to contact the OECD's Media Relations Division on (33) 1 45 24 97 00 or news.contact@oecd.org; others should contact the Statistics Directorate on stat.contact@oecd.org.

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Harmonised Unemployment Rates (HURs), OECD - Updated: January 2009

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