The OECD unemployment rate remained stable at 4.9% in July 2025, having been at or below 5.0% since April 2022 (Figure 1). The number of unemployed persons in the OECD also showed little change, totalling 34.3 million in July (Table 2). Compared with June 2025, unemployment rates in July were unchanged in 20 OECD countries, declined in 11 – most notably in Greece and Norway – and increased only in Ireland and Sweden. Japan, Korea, and Slovenia recorded unemployment rates below 3%, among the lowest in the OECD and close to their respective record lows. By contrast, 14 countries saw unemployment rates at least 1.0 percentage point (p.p.) above their record lows (Figure 2 and Table 1). Unemployment rates for women and men remained stable in July at 5.0% and 4.8%, respectively (Table 3).
In July 2025, the OECD unemployment rate for younger workers (aged 15-24) declined to 11.2% compared with 11.4% in June. It remained significantly higher – by 7.1 p.p. – than the rate for workers aged 25 and over, which has held steady since June 2022. The youth unemployment rate exceeded that of workers aged 25 and over in all OECD countries in July 2025 or in the latest period available. The smallest gaps, both under 3 p.p., were recorded in Japan and Germany, while the largest differences, exceeding 15 p.p., were recorded in Costa Rica, Finland, Sweden, and Estonia (Figure 3 and Table 4).
In the European Union and the euro area, unemployment rates in July 2025 remained largely unchanged at 5.9% and 6.2%, respectively. Among the 17 OECD euro area countries, 9 saw stable unemployment rates in July 2025, while 7 recorded a decrease. In countries with the largest decrease, specific demographic groups played a key role: men aged 25 and over contributed the most to the unemployment decline in Greece; young men accounted for most of the decrease in Austria; and women aged 25 and over drove the increase in Portugal. Conversely, in Ireland, women drove the increase in the unemployment rate (Table 1 and Figure 4).
Outside the euro area, the unemployment rate was stable in most OECD countries in July 2025. Türkiye hit its record low of 8%, a rate last seen in June 2012, with men aged 25 and over accounting for most of this decrease. By contrast, the rise in Sweden’s unemployment rate was largely attributed to women (Figure 4 and Table 1). Data for August 2025 shows that the unemployment rate in Canada rose to 7.1%, while it remained broadly stable at 4.3% in the United States, 0.5 and 0.3 p.p. higher than in January 2025, respectively.
Methodology
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- Next release: 13 November 2025
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