Unemployment rate in the OECD declines slightly to 5% in April 2022

 

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9 June 2022 - The unemployment rate in the OECD fell further to 5.0% in April 2022, from 5.1% in March. This continues a positive trend for the OECD, which has now recorded 12 months of falling unemployment (Figure 1).

The unemployment rate was equal to or below the pre-pandemic rate in three quarters of OECD countries in April (Figure 2). Moreover, the number of unemployed workers in the OECD also continued to fall, reaching 34.0 million, 0.5 million below the pre-pandemic level.

A decline in the OECD unemployment rate was recorded for women (Table 2), as well as for all age groups (Table 3). However, the unemployment rate for men was stable at 4.9%.

In the euro area, the unemployment rate remained stable at 6.8% in April for the third month in a row. It turned upwards in one quarter of the euro area countries, with the largest increase observed in Greece (Table 1).

Outside the euro area, the unemployment rate fell markedly in Colombia, and more modestly in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Japan and Mexico. However, unemployment increased in the Czech Republic and Hungary. More recent data show that in May 2022, the unemployment rate remained stable at 3.6% for the third consecutive month in the United States.

It should be noted that the unemployment rate does not capture non-employed people who are outside of the labour force, either because they are not actively looking for a job or are not available for work. 

 

(1) The fall in the OECD unemployment rate when compared with the April 2020 peak should be interpreted with caution, as it largely reflects the return of temporary laid-off workers in the United States and Canada, where they are recorded as unemployed, unlike in most other countries, including European member states, where they are recorded as employed.

Visit the interactive OECD Datal to explore these data further

Link to underlying data - Source: Labour Force Statistics‌‌

 

(1) For Costa Rica, Chile, Norway and Turkey change between February 2020 and March 2022; for the United Kingdom, change between February 2020 and February 2022; for New Zealand, change between fourth quarter 2019 and first quarter 2022; Switzerland, change between fourth quarter 2019 and fourth quarter 2021. 

• Next publication date: July 2022 - 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 [email protected];  others should contact the Statistics Directorate on [email protected].
• Link to previous news releases
• More information on labour statistics at www.oecd.org/sdd/labour

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