The unemployment rate in the OECD area remained stable at 6.6% in December 2015, 1.5 percentage points below its peak value from January 2013. Overall, 40.4 million people were unemployed in the OECD area, 8.4 million fewer than in January 2013, but still 7.9 million more than in April 2008, before the crisis.
In December, the unemployment rate in the euro area continued to decrease (by 0.1 percentage points, to 10.4%). Within the euro area, the largest decreases were observed in Portugal (down by 0.4 percentage points, to 11.8%), in the Slovak Republic (down by 0.2 percentage points, to 10.6%), and in Spain (down by 0.2 percentage points, to 20.8%).
The unemployment rate remained stable in December in Japan (at 3.3%) and the United States (at 5.0%), while it increased in Canada (by 0.1 percentage points, to 7.1%) and in Mexico (by 0.4 percentage points, to 4.5%).
More recent data show that in January 2016, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points in the United States (to 4.9%), while it increased by 0.1 percentage points in Canada (to 7.2%).
The unemployment rate has decreased steadily in a number of OECD countries over the past year. The largest decreases are observed in countries where unemployment is relatively high.
Compared to a year earlier, the unemployment rate had decreased in about three-quarters of the OECD countries, with decreases of one percentage point or more in Spain, the Slovak Republic, Portugal, Greece, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Italy.
In contrast, the unemployment rate increased in six countries: Norway, Finland, Canada, Austria, Mexico, and Switzerland.
