The OECD unemployment rate held steady at 5.0% in April 2026, a level it has hovered around since February 2022 (Figure 1). The number of unemployed individuals in the OECD was broadly stable at 35.1 million (Table 2). Similarly, unemployment rates in both the European Union (6.0%) and the euro area (6.3%) were unchanged from March, with the euro area rate remaining within 0.1 percentage points (p.p.) of its historic low from October 2024. Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico and Poland continued to record unemployment rates at 3.0% or below. By contrast, both Finland and Spain maintained double-digit unemployment rates, with Finland’s rate rising to 10.7% (Figure 2 and Table 1).
Compared with March 2026, the unemployment rate remained broadly stable in 21 of the 33 OECD countries with available data in April, including 16 European Union OECD countries. It fell in 6 countries and rose in 6 others. In the European Union OECD countries, the unemployment rate declined in Greece, Ireland and Sweden and rose in Denmark, Finland and Hungary, largely driven by increased unemployment among women aged 25 and over in Denmark and Hungary. Italy’s unemployment rate reached a record low of 5.1% since the current series began in 2004, while the youth unemployment rate (aged 15-24) fell to 16.9%. Greece and Sweden recorded the largest month-on-month decrease, falling by 0.9 and 0.7 p.p., respectively. Outside the European Union, the unemployment rate in April 2026 remained stable in five of the OECD countries with available data, fell in three, and increased in three others (Figure 4 and Table 1). Estimates for May 2026 indicate that the unemployment rate in Canada decreased by 0.3 p.p. to 6.6% while it remained unchanged at 4.3% in the United States.
In April 2026, the OECD youth unemployment rate (aged 15-24) rose slightly by 0.2 p.p. to 11.4% and remained significantly higher, by 7.2 p.p., than the rate for workers aged 25 and over, which has been hovering around 4.2% since February 2022. Around two-thirds of OECD countries continued to record double-digit youth unemployment rates. Among countries with available data, youth unemployment decreased in 15 countries in April, rose in 9 and remained broadly stable in 7 (Figure 3 and Table 4). In the G7, the youth unemployment rate rose by 0.5 p.p. to 10.6 % in April, primarily driven by a 1.0 p.p. increase in the United States. The OECD unemployment rates for women and men remained stable in April at 5.2% and 4.8%, respectively, leaving the OECD unemployment gender gap unchanged at 0.4 p.p. (Table 3).
Methodology
Release dates
- Next release: 10 September 2026
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