Harmonised Unemployment Rates stable at 8.2% in March for OECD

The OECD area unemployment rate was stable at 8.2% in March 2012, the same level recorded since February 2011. This flatness is largely the result of increasing rates in some euro area countries being offset by declines in North America.

The euro area unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point to 10.9% in March, 3.6 points higher than its all time low of 7.3% in March 2008. Within the euro area in March, the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 point in Portugal (to 15.3%) and Spain (to 24.1%, the highest rate in the OECD area), by 0.2 point in Italy (9.8%) and by 0.1 point in the Netherlands (5.0%). It fell by 0.2 point in Ireland (14.5%) and Slovenia (8.5%), and by 0.1 point in Austria (4.0%) and the Slovak Republic (13.9%), while unemployment rates remained stable in all other euro area countries.

via Harmonised Unemployment Rates (HURs), OECD – Updated: May 2012.