OECD April jobless rate stable at 8.7%

The jobless rate in the OECD area, a grouping of mostly developed nations, stood at 8.7 per cent in April, amid signs of a slow global economic recovery.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members, including the US and Germany, account for over 60 per cent of the global economic output.

Holding steady for the second straight month, the jobless rate was unchanged at 8.7 per cent in April compared to March, the OECD said in a statement today.

Striking an optimistic note, grouping noted the general picture "is of broad stability across the OECD geographies". In April, the count of unemployed people in the region touched 46.5 million.

Among the OECD member-nations, the highest unemployment rate in April was seen in Spain (19.7 per cent), the Slovak Republic (14.1 per cent), Ireland (13.2 per cent), Portugal (10.8 per cent), Hungary (10.4 per cent) and France (10.1 per cent).

Spain, Portugal and Hungary are currently grappling with acute sovereign debt crisis.

"The lowest (unemployment) rates were recorded in South Korea (3.7 per cent) and the Netherlands (4.1 per cent)," the statement said.

In April, the unemployment rate in the 16-nation Eurozone rose to a 12-year high of 10.1 per cent. Most of the Eurozone countries, which share the common currency euro, are also part of the OECD.

Meanwhile, the US saw its jobless rate slip to 9.7 per cent in May, mainly on account of increased temporary hiring for the census activities.

Even as the global economy is stabilising slowly, the European debt crisis has threatened to derail the recovery process. Signalling a slow, painful revival, OECD economies grew 0.7 per cent in the first three months of 2010 as against 0.9 per cent expansion in the December quarter.