OECD unemployment rate sees historic low at 5.1% in Aug

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental group of developed countries, on Wednesday claimed that the unemployment rate across its 36-member countries, was at an all-time low level, standing at 5.1% in August.

The OECD reported that the unemployment rate showed downward monthly trend of 0.1% percentage point. The number of unemployed people totaled 32.9 million across the 36-member OECD countries, which are mostly high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index (HDI).

"In the euro area, the unemployment rate declined by 0.1 percentage point in August, to 7.4%, the same level as in April 2008, just before the financial crisis. The largest decline was observed in Italy (down 0.3 percentage point, to 9.5%) and Portugal (down 0.2 percentage point, to 6.2%),” the data said.

The lowest figure was seen in Czech Republic with 2.0% in August, while the highest rate was recorded in Greece -- 17.0% in June, according to the latest monthly data available.

In the major seven economies -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., the U.S. -- the unemployment rate was 4.2% over the same period.

The OECD figures also revealed that the youth unemployment rate -- people aged 15 to 24 -- was stable at 11.2% across the organization in August. It, however, remained above 25% in Greece, Spain and Italy.