Jobless rate in August edged lower for OECD

Unemployment ticked down in August but remains elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says.

The monthly unemployment rate for the OECD area edged down to 6% in August from 6.1% in July, which was the fourth-straight monthly decline, and followed an overall downward trend since the peak of 8.8% in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic’s onset (in April 2020).

However, the OECD said the decline since April 2020 “largely reflects the return of temporary laid-off workers in the United States and Canada.”

Despite the recent decline, the jobless rate remained 0.7 percentage points above its pre-pandemic level in February 2020.

The number of unemployed workers across the OECD area is also still 4.3 million above the pre-pandemic mark, despite dropping by 1 million in August to 39.7 million.

In Europe the unemployment rate edged down to 7.5% in August from 7.6% in July, which is closer to its pre-pandemic rate.

The OECD said there were also notable declines in unemployment for Canada and the U.S. in August, which was followed by further reductions in September.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.