Unemployment in OECD in March 2015 – 42.4 million people were unemployed, UR at 6.9%

The OECD unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point to 6.9% in March 2015, with a cumulative decline of 1.2 percentage points since the peak reached in January 2013. Across the OECD area, 42.4 million people were unemployed, 6.6 million less than in January 2013.

The euro area unemployment rate was stable in March, at 11.3%. It was stable in France (at 10.6%) and Germany (at 4.7%), while it increased in Italy (by 0.3 percentage point, to 13.0%) and Austria (by 0.2 percentage point, to 5.6%) and showed small declines (0.1 percentage point) in Ireland (to 9.8%), Luxembourg (to 5.7%), the Netherlands (to 7.0%), Portugal (to 13.5%), the Slovak Republic (to 12.2%), Slovenia (to 9.3%) and Spain (to 23.0%).

Youth Unemployment

Although stable in March, since the peak of January 2013, the OECD unemployment rate for youth (people aged 15 to 24) has fallen by 2.6 percentage points, to 14.2%. Over the same period, the youth unemployment rate for the euro area declined by 1.9 percentage points, to 22.7% in March, with falls particularly significant in several euro area countries with high youth unemployment rates such as the Slovak Republic (down 9.7 percentage points, to 24.8%), Greece (down 9.5 percentage points, to 50.1% in January, the latest month available), Portugal (down 6.5 percentage points, to 33.8%) and Spain (down 5.3 percentage points, to 50.1%). However, in Italy, the youth unemployment rate rose over the period (up 4.4 percentage points, to 43.1%).

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Harmonised Unemployment Rates (HURs), OECD – Updated: May 2015 – OECD.