The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports that the unemployment rate for the OECD area edged up to 8.0% in October.
The Paris-based group said Tuesday that the unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point compared to the previous month. In the euro area, the unemployment rate hit a new record high, up 0.1 percentage point to 11.7%, it notes. It also ticked up in the U.S. and was stable in Canada in October. However, more recent data for November show that the rate fell by 0.2 percentage points in both the U.S. and Canada (to 7.7% and 7.2%, respectively), it adds.
Indeed, the OECD notes that trends in unemployment rates have diverged significantly since the beginning of the economic and financial crisis. While the rates are now significantly below the peaks they reached in the aftermath of the crisis in Canada and the United States (down by 1.5 and 2.3 percentage points, respectively), they reached a new peak in several countries, including France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, in October.
Overall, there were 48.1 million people unemployed in the OECD area in October, 0.4 million more than in September, and 13.4 million more than in July 2008.