OECD unemployment up to 8.6%

12 October 2009 | By Adam Lewis

The unemployment rate in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) area increased to 8.6% in August, a marginal 0.1 percentage point rise from July.

Compared with the same month last year the unemployment rate has risen 2.3 percentage points.

Meanwhile, in the eurozone the rate of unemployment hit 9.6% in August, again 0.1 percentage point higher than July and 2 percentage points higherthan August 2008.

In Japan, however, the rate of unemployment saw a decline in August, falling to 5.5% from 5.7% in July. In Germany the rate stayed the same month-on-month at 7.7%. In France the rate hit 9.9%, up from 9.7% in July.