OECD unemployment rate rises in January

The unemployment rate for the OECD area was 6.9 per cent in January, 0.1 per cent higher than December and up 1.3 per cent on the same month a year earlier, according to new figures.

The Organisationfor Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) total covers 29 member countries for which unemployment rates have been estimated. These comprise the 19 of the 27 European Union countries which are also members of the OECD plus Canada, the United States, Australia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.

In the Euro area, the unemployment rate reached 8.2 per cent in January, up 0.1 per cent on the previous month and 0.9 per cent higher than in January 2008.

For Ireland, the rate totalled 4.1 per cent in January, up from 3.6 per cent in December.

In the United States, the unemployment rate for January was 7.6 per cent and this rose to 8.1 per cent last month.

For Japan, the rate was 4.1 per cent in January, 0.2 per cent lower than in Decmber but 0.3 per cent higher than in the same month a year earlier.

In January 2009, the unemployment rate for France totalled 8.3 per cent, a rise of 0.7 per cent point year-on-year.

For Germany, the rate was 7.3 per cent in January, 0.4 per cent lower than iin the same month a year earlier.

In Canada the unemployment rate reached 7.2 per cent in January, 0.6 per cent higher than the previous month and 1.3 per cent more than a year earlier.