Unemployment in OECD sticks at 5.3%, lowest since 2001

Unemployment across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) area stuck at 5.3 per cent in January.

This was the same rate recorded in February 2020 just before the Covid-19 pandemic and the lowest level since the start of the series in 2001.

The latest jobless data from the OECD corresponded to 35.9 million unemployed workers.

The European Central Bank has so far held off increasing interest rates in the face of higher inflation for fear of dampening recovery.

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In January, the OECD area unemployment rate for women declined to 5.5 per cent (from 5.6 per cent in December), while it remained at 5.2 per cent for men. Even with this, just half of OECD countries reported a lower unemployment rate for men than women.

The youth unemployment rate, however, increased to 11.3 per cent, up from 11.2 per cent.

Euro area

In the euro area, the unemployment rate fell further in January, to 6.8 per cent from 7 per cent in December.

“It should be noted that the unemployment rate conceals the extent of the unmet labour demand as some non-employed people may be ‘out of the labour force’, and hence not captured by the unemployment rate, either because they are not actively looking for a job or are not available to work,” the OECD said.

Covid-adjusted unemployment in the Republic, as measured by the Central Statistics Office, fell to 7 per cent in February on the back of the lifting of pandemic restrictions in late January. This was down from 7.8 per cent for the previous month and 27 per cent a year ago.