OECD unemployment rate at lowest since 2001

ANKARA

The unemployment rate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) area hit its lowest level since 2001 in May.

The OECD region unemployment rate came in at 5% in May, unchanged from April.

The rate was below or equal to the pre-pandemic level in two thirds of all OECD countries.

The number of jobless in the OECD region remained broadly stable at 33.8 million in May.

The OECD unemployment rate for women rose marginally for the first time since December 2020, reaching 5.3% in May versus 5.2% in April.

At the onset of Russia's war in Ukraine, both the employment and the labor force participation rates in the OECD were at their highest levels, hitting 69% and 72.9%, respectively, in the first quarter of this year.

In the euro area, the unemployment rate slipped slightly to 6.6% in May from 6.7% in the previous month.

The largest declines in the euro area were seen in Italy, Lithuania and Spain, and the largest rises were recorded in Austria, Belgium and Portugal.

In June 2022, the unemployment rate remained stable at 3.6% for the fourth month in a row in the US, while it declined further in Canada to 4.9%.