THE OECD unemployment rate was stable at 5.3% in July 2018. Across the OECD, 33.5 million people were unemployed, 15.7 million less than the peak in January 2013 and only 0.8 million more than in April 2008.

In the Euro area, the unemployment rate remained stable at 8.2% in July. However rates increased by 0.2 percentage point or more in Lithuania (up 0.5 percentage point, to 6.3%), Austria (up 0.2 percentage point, to 4.9%) and Belgium (up 0.2 percentage point, to 6.2%). By contrast, the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point in Italy, to 10.4%, having increased by 0.3 percentage point in the previous month.

The unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percentage point in Canada (to 5.8%) and by 0.1 percentage point in Mexico (to 3.3%) and the United States (to 3.9%), while it increased by 0.1 percentage point in Japan (to 2.5%) and Korea (to 3.8%). More recent data show that in August, the unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage point in Canada (to 6.0%), while it was stable in the United States.

The OECD unemployment rate for men fell by 0.1 percentage point in July, to 5.1%, 0.4 percentage point below that for women (stable at 5.5%). The OECD unemployment rate for youth (people aged 15 to 24) declined by 0.2 percentage point in July, to 10.9%. In the euro area, the youth unemployment rate also fell by 0.2 percentage point, to 16.6%, the lowest level since September 2008. Differences in youth unemployment rates across euro area countries remain large however, ranging from above 30% in Greece, Spain and Italy, to below 8% in Germany and the Netherlands.