Unemployment in OECD-countries

The average unemployment rate in OECD-countries stood at 4.8% in September 2023, unchanged from the previous month as well as remaning below 5% for the 15th consecutive month. The current level is also below the pre-pandemic trend when unemployment hovered around 5.5% on average in the OECD-area.

The latest data at country-level shows that Spain, Greece and Colombia have the highest unemployment rates, while the lowest can be observed in Korea, Japan and Mexico.

To explore the data further at country level, the below section charts the monthly unemployment rate over the past five years in all OECD-countries. Note that since New Zealand and Switzerland only report quarterly rates, their charts below use quarterly data and not monthly.