OECD unemployment rate stable in December 2018

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) unemployment rate was stable at 5.2 percent in December 2018, the organization said on Tuesday.

For the third consecutive month, the unemployment rate remained constant -- three percentage points below the January 2013 peak.

The organization said as of the 2018-end, the number of unemployed people totaled 33.4 million across the 36 member countries.

"The unemployment rate was also stable in the euro area in December, at 7.9 percent, with the largest decrease observed in Italy [down 0.2 percentage point, to 10.3 percent]," the OECD said.

The lowest figures were seen in Czech Republic and Japan, with 2.1 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively, while the highest rates were recorded in Greece -- 18.5 percent in November, the latest month available -- and Spain with 14.3 percent.

In the major seven economies -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., the U.S. -- the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent over the same period.

On a yearly basis, the unemployment rate declined by 0.3 percentage point across the OECD, and by 0.7 percentage point in the euro area.

The OECD figures also revealed that the youth unemployment rate -- people aged 15 to 24 -- was 11.2 percent across the organization in December, remained above 30 percent in Greece, Spain and Italy.