The jobless rate stayed stable in September, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported on Thursday.
The overall OECD unemployment rate came in unchanged at 4.9% in September, the Paris-based group reported — with jobless rates staying stable in 26 countries, rising in four countries and falling in two jurisdictions.
The jobless rate has now been at, or just below, the 5% mark for 30 consecutive months, the OECD said.
In six countries, the jobless rate in September was below 3%, the OECD noted, and there was just one country with a double-digit unemployment rate — Spain.
For the European Union overall, the unemployment rate remained at its record low of 5.9% in September.
And, in more recent data for October, the jobless rates for Canada and the U.S. were unchanged, although rates have risen since the start of the year, the OECD noted. Canada’s rate is up by 0.8 percentage points since January to 6.5%, and the U.S. rate has climbed 0.4 points to 4.1% over the same period.
The youth unemployment rate has also risen this year, up by 0.7 percentage points for workers aged 15-24 since January, the report noted — although the jobless rate for young workers was essentially unchanged in September.
Despite the stability in jobless rates, the number of unemployed workers in the OECD decreased slightly in September, “with the largest drop recorded in the United States,” the group said.