OECD unemployment rate stable at 5.3% in August 2018

 

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09/10/2018 - The OECD unemployment rate remained stable at 5.3% in August 2018. Across the OECD, 33.5 million people were unemployed, around one million more than in April 2008.[1]

In the euro area, the unemployment rate declined by 0.1 percentage point, to 8.1% in August, with the rate dropping 0.5 percentage point in Italy (to 9.7%, following the 0.4 percentage point fall in July).

The unemployment rate also fell in Japan (by 0.1 percentage point to 2.4%), and was stable in Mexico (at 3.3%) and the United States (at 3.9%). Rates rose, however, in Canada (by 0.2 percentage point, to 6.0%) and Korea (by 0.4 percentage point, to 4.2%).

More recent data for September show that the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point in the United States, to 3.7%, the lowest level since December 1969, and by 0.1 percentage point in Canada (to 5.9%).

The OECD unemployment rate was stable across different age groups in August 2018, meaning that the youth (people aged 15 to 24) unemployment rate, at 11.0%, remained more than twice as large as that for people aged 25 and above (at 4.6%). For the OECD as whole unemployed youth (7.9 million) made up one-quarter of total unemployment. The OECD unemployment rates for women (at 5.5%) and men (5.1%) were also stable in August.

 

‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌ Link to underlying data - Source: Labour Force Statistics‌‌

 

• Next publication date: 13 November 2018 - see all release dates
• Contacts: 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.
• Link to previous news releases
• More information on labour statistics at www.oecd.org/sdd/labour

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