OECD unemployment rate stable at 5.2% in October 2019
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10/12/2019 – The OECD unemployment rate remained stable at 5.2% in October 2019. Across the OECD area, 33.2 million people were unemployed.
In the euro area, the unemployment rate declined by 0.1 percentage point in October, to 7.5%. Unemployment rates were broadly stable in the majority of countries, but fell by 0.2 percentage point in Italy, to 9.7% (following an increase of 0.3 percentage point in the previous month), and Lithuania, to 6.4%.
Outside Europe, the unemployment rate increased in October by 0.1 percentage point in Australia (to 5.3%), Korea (to 3.5%) and the United States (to 3.6%). The unemployment rate was stable in Canada (at 5.5%), Japan (at 2.4%) and Mexico (at 3.6%), while it declined by 0.2 percentage point in Israel (to 3.4%). More recent data show that in November, the unemployment rate declined by 0.1 percentage point in the United States (to 3.5%), while it increased by 0.4 percentage point in Canada (to 5.9%).
In October, the OECD unemployment rate was also broadly stable across the main population groups. The OECD unemployment rate for youth (people aged 15 to 24) was unchanged at 11.4%, remaining seven percentage points higher than the rate for those aged 25 and above (stable at 4.4%). The difference between OECD unemployment rates for women and men (at 5.2% and 5.1%) was also stable.
Link to underlying data – Source: Labour Force Statistics |
- Next publication date: 15 January 2020 – see all release dates
