THE Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Monday the unemployment rate continued to decline slightly in March to 6.5 per cent but remained 1.2 percentage points about the rate observed in February, 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the labour market. The unemployment rate in February, 2021 had been 6.6 per cent.

In March, a marginal decline of the unemployment rate was also observed in the Euro area, to 8.1 per cent, where the largest falls of 0.2 percentage point or more were registered in Finland (to 7.7 per cent), Lithuania (to 8.9 per cent), Portugal (to 6.5 per cent) and Spain (to 15.3 per cent).

Outside Europe, the unemployment rate decreased in March in most countries. It fell by 0.7 percentage point in Canada to 7.5 per cent, by 0.5 percentage point in Colombia to 13.8 per cent, and by 0.3 percentage point in Japan to 2.6 per cent.

It fell by 0.2 percentage point in Australia to 5.6 per cent, Mexico to 4.3 per cent and the US to 6 per cent.

By contrast, it rose by 0.3 percentage point, to 5.4 per cent in Israel. More recent data show that in April the unemployment rate rose by 0.6 percentage point in Canada (to 8.1 per cent) and by 0.1 percentage point in the US (to 6.1 per cent).

The OECD youth unemployment rate decreased further in March to 13.3 per cent, still 2 percentage points above its pre-pandemic levels.