THE OECD area unemployment rate was stable at 8.2% in March 2012, the
same level recorded since February 2011. This flatness is largely the result of
increasing rates in some euro area countries being offset by declines in North
America.
The euro area unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point to
10.9% in March, 3.6 points higher than its all time low of 7.3% in March 2008.
Within the euro area in March, the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 point in
Portugal (to 15.3%) and Spain (to 24.1%, the highest rate in the OECD area), by
0.2 point in Italy (9.8%) and by 0.1 point in the Netherlands (5.0%). It fell by
0.2 point in Ireland (14.5%) and Slovenia (8.5%), and by 0.1 point in Austria
(4.0%) and the Slovak Republic (13.9%), while unemployment rates remained stable
in all other euro area countries.
Outside Europe, unemployment rates
across the OECD area remained broadly stable. Korea experienced the largest fall
in March 2012 (to 3.4%), with no country recording an increase. New data for
April 2012 show that the unemployment rate fell in the United States (to 8.1%,
down from its peak of 9.1% in August 2011) while it rose slightly in Canada (to
7.3%, up 0.1 point from the previous month).
Around 45.0 million people
were unemployed across the OECD area in March 2012, up 0.8 million from March
2011 and 14.1 million from March 2008.
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