The OECD unemployment rate held steady at 5.0% in March 2026, having remained at or just below this mark for the past 4 years (Figure 1). Compared with February 2026, the unemployment rate remained broadly stable in 22 of the 32 OECD countries with available data in March and fell in 8 countries, while it rose in Greece and Sweden. Israel, Japan, Korea and Mexico continued to record unemployment rates below 3.0%. In contrast, Finland and Spain maintained double-digit unemployment rates (Figure 2 and Table 1). At the same time, the number of unemployed individuals in the OECD declined by over 400 thousand from February 2026 to 35 million overall (Table 2).
In March 2026, the OECD youth unemployment rate (aged 15-24) declined by 0.3 percentage points (p.p.) to 11.2% from February but remained significantly higher – by 7.0 p.p. – than the rate for workers aged 25 and over, which has been broadly stable since March 2022. In G7 countries, youth unemployment decreased by 0.5 p.p. from February to 10.0 % in March, driven by declines in Canada and the United States. Youth unemployment decreased in 14 OECD countries, held broadly steady in 11 and rose in 7. In Israel and Japan, age gaps, defined as the difference between the youth unemployment rate and the unemployment rate for workers aged 25 and over, were closest to parity (2 p.p. or less). In contrast Chile, Estonia, Spain and Sweden experienced age gaps exceeding 15 p.p. (Figure 3 and Table 4). The OECD unemployment rates for women and men remained stable in March at 5.2% and 4.8%, respectively, keeping the OECD unemployment gender gap in 2026 steady at 0.4 p.p. (Table 3).
In March 2026, unemployment rates in both the European Union (6.0%) and the euro area (6.2%) were broadly unchanged from February, with the rate in the euro area remaining at its historic low. The unemployment rate remained broadly stable in 14 OECD European Union countries, declined in 6 and rose only in Greece and Sweden, largely driven by higher unemployment among men aged 15 to 24. Italy’s unemployment rate fell to a record low of 5.2%, matching January 2026. Denmark recorded the largest month-on-month decrease, falling by 0.7 p.p., primarily driven by a decline in the unemployment rate among women aged 25 and over (Figure 4 and Table 1).
Outside the European Union, the unemployment rate was stable in March 2026 in eight of the OECD countries with available data, and declined in Korea and Türkiye (Figure 4 and Table 1). Estimates for April 2026 indicate that the unemployment rate in Canada rose to 6.9%, while it remained unchanged at 4.3% in the United States.
Methodology
Release dates
- Next release: 11 June 2026
- All release dates
Contact us
For further information, journalists are invited to contact the OECD's Media Relations Division on (33) 1 45 24 97 00; others should contact the Statistics and Data Directorate
