Unemployment in OECD area hits 8.3%
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Unemployment in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries peaked at 8.3% in May. The rate was 0.3% higher than in April and 2.4% higher than a year earlier, according to official data.
The eurozone recorded an above-average unemployment rate of 9.5%. This is 0.2% higher than in April and 2.1% higher than in May 2008.
Comparisons on a country level are somewhat skewed as some member states have delayed monthly releases.
The OECD table, however, does show considerable differences of May data. Unemployment in Spain, for example, at 18.7% was almost six times higher than in the Netherlands, which reported 3.2%.
Unemployment rates also reached double-digits in Ireland (11.7%), the Slovak Republic (11.1%) and Hungary (10.2%).
Among the four countries with the lowest unemployment rates were Korea (3.9%), Austria (4.3%) and Australia (5.7%).
France reported an unemployment rate of 9.3% in May and Germany 7.7%. Britain and Italy, which both have released only March data, reported 7.2% and 7.4% respectively.
Japan’s unemployment rate was 5.2% in May.
America, which has already announced unemployment rates for June, reported a 9.5% rate. Canada's jobless rate was 8.6% in June.
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