Unemployment falls across the OECD members
UNEMPLOYMENT rates in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) area fell to 8.1 per cent in April, continuing the downward trend that began in October 2010, while Euro area figures remained stable at 9.9 per cent.
Just five of the 34 member countries of the OECD reported a rise in unemployment, including the US and Japan.
Joblessness remained high in Portugal, Ireland and Spain – where the rate of unemployment has been at more than 20 per cent since May 2010.
In April 2011 there were 44.1m unemployed people in OECD countries, down 3.1m from this time last year, but still 13.2m higher than in April 2008.
In the so-called Major Seven countries – comprising Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US – employment rose by 0.1 percentage point to 7.7 per cent.