In September 2025, the unemployment rate remained stable, compared to August 2025, in 24 of the 32 OECD countries with available data. Four OECD countries saw an increase, and four others experienced a decline (Table 1). Korea, Japan, Mexico, Czechia and Israel registered unemployment rates at or below 3.0%, with Korea’s unemployment rate marking a record low (at 2.5%). Only Spain recorded a double-digit unemployment rate (Figure 1 and Table 1). As several countries have not released their statistics for September 2025 yet, unemployment rates for the OECD and the G7 areas currently remain unavailable.*
In the European Union and the euro area, unemployment rates in September 2025 remained unchanged at 6.0% and 6.3%, respectively. Among the 17 OECD euro area countries, 13 saw stable unemployment rates in September 2025. Unemployment rates rose in Luxembourg and Slovenia, while Finland and Austria saw declines primarily due to falling unemployment rates among women aged 25 and over (Figure 4 and Table 1).
Outside the euro area, the unemployment rate was stable in most OECD countries in September 2025. Increases were observed in Hungary, primarily driven by men aged 25 and over, and in Australia, where women aged 15–24, men aged 15–24, and men aged 25-and-over contributed evenly to the rise (Figure 4 and Table 1). More timely estimates for Canada show that the unemployment rate declined 0.2 percentage points (p.p.) to 6.9% in October 2025.
In September 2025, the unemployment rate for men exceeded that of women in 20 OECD countries. Estonia, Belgium and Finland recorded the largest gap in favour of women, with unemployment rates for women at least 1.5 p.p. lower than those for men. Among OECD countries where women faced higher unemployment rates, Spain, Türkiye, and Greece showed the widest gap, each exceeding 3 p.p. (Figure 2 and Table 3).
The youth unemployment rate exceeded that of workers aged 25 and over in all OECD countries in September 2025 or in the latest period available. The smallest gaps, both under 1.5 p.p., were recorded in Israel and Japan, while the largest differences, exceeding 15 p.p., were recorded in Luxembourg, Spain, and Colombia (Figure 3 and Table 4).
Methodology
Release dates
- Next release: 11 December 2025
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