On the heels of Monday’s composite leading indicator readings, which signaled a possible economic upturn, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Tuesday reported that the unemployment picture has yet to improve.
The jobless rate for the OECD area was unchanged at 8.2% in December 2011, continuing to show the stability seen throughout the past year.
However, the group says that national rates continue to diverge. New unemployment data for January 2012 showed a fifth consecutive monthly decline in the U.S. (at 8.3%) and an increase in Canada (7.6%), the OECD reports.
The Euro area’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 10.4% in December, a continuing record high since the start of the global financial crisis, it notes. This masks large differences in national rates, the OECD says, with Spain topping the charts with a 22.9% jobless rate. It is joined in the high unemployment club by Ireland (14.5%), Portugal (13.6%), and the Slovak Republic (13.4%). Whereas, Austria (4.1%), the Netherlands (4.9%), Luxembourg (5.2%) and Germany (5.5%) all continue to enjoy much lower rates.
Additionally, the OECD reports that unemployment rates for Australia (5.2%), Japan (4.6%), Korea (3.1%) and Mexico (5.0%) remaine low and broadly stable.
Around 44.6 million people were unemployed across the OECD area in December, down 1.0 million from December 2010 but still 13.5 million higher than in December 2007, it says.