OECD Area Unemployment Rate Holds Steady Oct 11, 2011

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The OECD area unemployment rate was steady at 8.2% in August 2011, unchanged from July. The rate has been stable at around 8.2% since January 2011.

Euro area unemployment was unchanged at 10.0%, where it has been since November 2010.

Between July and August unemployment rates displayed very little movement in most OECD countries. The highest rise was in Australia (up by 0.2 percentage point, to 5.3%) while the greatest fall was in Japan (down by 0.4 percentage point, to 4.3%).

New September 2011 data show the United States unchanged at 9.1% and Canada down by 0.2 percentage point, to 7.1%.

Countries where high unemployment rates persisted in August 2011 include:
• Ireland - 14.6%
• Portugal - 12.3%
• Slovak Republic - 13.4%
• Spain - 21.2%

Around 44.3 million people were unemployed across the OECD area in August 2011, down 2.3 million from August 2010 but still 10.4 million higher than in August 2008.

OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) currently has 34 member countries:

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• Chile
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Ireland
• Israel
• Italy
• Japan
• Korea
• Luxembourg
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Slovak Republic
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• United Kingdom
• United States

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