AN OECD study has recorded that the OECD area unemployment rate was stable at 8.2% in November 2011, and has remained unchanged since August. The rate has hovered at this level since January 2011. However, stability at the aggregate level masks different national situations. The Euro area's unemployment rate remained at 10.3% in November – the highest rate recorded since the start of the global financial crisis. This reflected ongoing increases in the unemployment rates for Portugal (at 13.2%), Spain (at 22.9%), Italy (at 14.6%) and more lately the Netherlands (at 4.9%) offset by sustained declines in the unemployment rates for Germany (at 5.5%) and more recently Belgium (at 7.2%). Germany's rate has now regained its 1991 reunification level, down from the peak of 11.5% in April 2005.

December 2011 unemployment rate data for North America show a similar divergent pattern, with a fourth consecutive monthly decline in the United States (at 8.5%) and a third consecutive increase in Canada (at 7.5%).Around 44.6 million people were unemployed across the OECD area in November 2011, down 1.8 million from November 2010 but still 13.8 million higher than in November 2007.