THE Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Wednesday said the unemployment rate remained stable at 6.8 per cent in January, 2021, remaining 1.6 percentage points above the level observed in February, 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the labour market.

In January, the unemployment rate was stable in the Euro area as well, at 8.1 per cent for the third consecutive month, 0.8 percentage point above its February, 2020 level. The largest declines, of 0.2 percentage point or more, were recorded in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain, while increases of 0.2 percentage point or more were observed in Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and the Slovak Republic.

The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point in the United States to 6.3 per cent in January, and more recent data show that it declined further to 6.2 per cent in February, 2021, along with a decrease in the number of people on temporary lay-off.

Declines of 0.2 percentage point or more were also observed in Australia to 6.4 per cent, Colombia to 14.3 per cent and Israel to 4.5 per cent. A marginal reduction was also seen in Japan to 2.9 per cent.

The OECD further said that unemployment rates increased by 0.2 percentage point in Mexico to 4.5 per cent, and by 0.6 percentage point in Canada to 9.4 per cent.

At 5.4 per cent, Korea saw its highest level of unemployment since October, 1999.

The OECD unemployment rate for women at 7 per cent remained 0.4 percentage point above that for men, who were at 6.6 per cent in January. Meanwhile, the youth unemployment rate decreased slightly to 14 per cent in January from 14.2 per cent in the previous month.