London: The jobless rate in the OECD region
-- a grouping of developed and developing nations -- rose
marginally to 9.8 percent in October, indicating that the
labour market is yet to shrug off recession blues.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD), comprising 30 countries including the US, Germany and
France, has been hit by the global financial turmoil.
In a statement today, OECD said the unemployment rate for
the area was 8.8 percent in October, 0.1 percentage point
higher than the previous month. In September, the same stood
at 8.7 percent.
Many of the OECD members had slipped into recession --
generally defined as two consecutive quarters of negative
economic growth.
The euro zone -- a grouping of 16 nations sharing the
common currency euro -- the jobless rate stood at 9.8 percent
in October. Euro area is also part of the OECD.
Japan saw an unemployment rate of 5.1 percent in
October.
Millions of jobs have evaporated worldwide since the
financial crisis erupted in late 2008, as companies slashed
their workforce, mainly to cut down on costs.
Nonetheless, latest data showed that jobless rate slipped
to ten per cent in the US in November. In the previous month,
the unemployment rate had touched a 26-year-high of 10.2 percent.
PTI
First Published: Monday, December 14, 2009, 21:26