Majority of OECD Countries Sees Unemployment Inch Up

Across the OECD, unemployment crept up to 5 percent as of December, new numbers showed today. Many major economies, including the United States, have seen numbers slowly rise over the past years. However, U.S. unemployment was still lower than in other nations and below the OECD average, standing at a harmonized 4.4 percent at the end of last year.

Countries in Southern Europe and Latin American saw some of the highest unemployment rates across the OECD, but overall registered them falling. Scandinavian nations Sweden and Finland, on the other hand, saw high unemployment that was rising, to 8.8 percent as of the latest reading in Sweden and even to 10.0 percent in Finland. Unemployment was also high in Canada at 6.8 percent and France at 7.7 percent.

While U.S. rates were low in comparison, countries like Germany, South Korea, Mexico and Poland saw even lower unemployment.