Unemployment continues to fall in OECD area in October

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The unemployment rate in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) region fell to 5.7% for the sixth consecutive month in October from 5.8% in September, the organization said on Wednesday.

The rate was still 0.5 percentage point above the pre-pandemic level, the OECD said.

"The number of unemployed workers across the OECD area also continued to fall (by 0.2 million), reaching 38.3 million, still 2.8 million above the pre-pandemic level," it added.

While the rate was stable among women at 6%, it declined slightly among men from 5.6% to 5.5% in October versus September.

The OECD noted: "Unemployment also declined slightly among prime age and older workers aged 25 and above (down to 4.9%, from 5.0% in September), but edged up among younger people aged 15 to 24 (up to 12.1%, from 12.0%)."

In the euro area, there was a slight drop of 0.1 percentage point to 7.3% in October, with the largest declines in Greece (to 12.9% from 13.1%), Lithuania (to 6.5% from 6.7%), Luxembourg (to 5.1% from 5.3%), and the Netherlands (to 2.9% from 3.1%).

"In contrast, the largest increases were observed in Austria (to 5.8% from 5.2%) and Italy (to 9.4% from 9.2%)," it added.