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DPA
Dublin
Unemployment among the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) fell to 6.9 per cent in November, the group’s secretariat reported on Wednesday.
That is down from 7.1 per cent the month before, but still 1.7 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels.
Overall, 45.5 million people were unemployed across the OECD’s 37 member states in November, 10.7 million more than in February, the last month before governments imposed widespread restrictions in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The OECD said that unemployment among the eurozone countries decreased slightly from October to November, from 8.4 to 8.3 per cent, after month-on-month joblessness fell in Finland, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal, but increased in France, Ireland and Spain.
The 2.9-per-cent unemployment rate recorded in the Czech Republic and Japan in November were the lowest among the OECD countries, with Spain’s 16.4 per cent and Colombia’s 15.5 the two highest reported rates.
The secretariat warned that “some care is needed in interpreting the fall in the OECD area unemployment rate compared to the April peak,” given that, in Canada and the US, workers temporarily laid off due to the pandemic and lockdowns are recorded as unemployed.
Including temporary redundancies, December unemployment in the US remained at 6.7 per cent, the same as in November, the OECD estimated.
Overall unemployment across the OECD has likely risen since November, with countries reimposing or extending lockdowns as new virus case numbers increase in member states, with almost all remaining slow to implement vaccination plans.
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14/01/2021
613