THE OECD unemployment rate was stable at 8.0% in December 2012, unchanged
from the previous month.
For the first time since May 2011, the
unemployment rate in the euro area has been stable for two consecutive months
(at 11.7%), after 17 months of uninterrupted increase.
In December, the
unemployment rate was also stable in the United States (at 7.8%) while it fell
in Canada (by 0.1 percentage point to 7.1%) and rose in Japan (by 0.1 percentage
point to 4.2%). More recent data referring to the month of January 2013 show
that the unemployment rate rose in the United States (by 0.1 percentage point to
7.9%) while it continued to fall in Canada (by 0.1 percentage point to
7.0%).
Trends in unemployment rates across OECD countries have diverged
significantly since the beginning of the economic and financial crisis. In
January, unemployment rates were significantly below the peaks they reached in
the aftermath of the crisis in Canada and the United States (1.7 and 2.1
percentage points lower, respectively). In December, the unemployment rate in
Japan was close to its pre-crisis level while it was significantly below that
level in Germany (2.1 percentage points lower). By contrast, the unemployment
rate reached a new peak in December in several countries, including France (at
10.6%), Greece (at 26.8% in October, the latest month available), Italy (at
11.2%) and Portugal (at 16.5%).
Overall, there were 48.2 million people
unemployed in the OECD area in December 2012, 13.5 million more than in July
2008.
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