LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN THE LABOUR MARKET
Figure 1. The labour market impact of the crisis and early recovery periods has been uneven across countries
Unemployment rate before the crisis, at its peak and its latest value
a0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
NOR KOR NLD CHE AUT JPN LUX AUS MEX NZL DEU SVN DNK CZE ISR GBR BEL ISL CAN ITA FIN SWE POL FRA USA PRT CHL HUN GRC TUR IRL SVK EST ESP OECD G7 Euro area
% Pre-crisis trough Peak Latest
Note: Countries are shown in ascending order by the unemployment rate at its peak.
a) Trough dates are defined as the start of the longest spell of consecutive increase of the quarterly OECD harmonised unemployment rates (seasonally adjusted) since 2006 Q1. For the majority of the countries, the latest data are for 2010 Q4.
Source: OECD calculations based on OECD Main Economic Indicators Database.
2
Figure 2. Falling employment has particularly affected youth, low-skilled and men Percentage change in employment, 2007 Q3 - 2010 Q3
-1.6
-2.7
-0.2
-9.1
-1.8
7.4
-8.1
-2.9
6.1
-12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10
Both sexes
Men
Women
Youth (15-24)
Prime-age (25-54)
Old-age (55-64)
Low-skilled
Medium-skilled
High-skilled GenderAge groupsEducational attainment
%
a) Data are not seasonally adjusted. Weighted average of all OECD countries excluding Chile, Israel and Switzerland (and Australia, Japan and New Zealand for the employment by educational attainment).
Source : OECD estimates based on national Labour Force Surveys.
Figure 3. However, the sharp hikes in long-term unemployment are confined to a few countries, third quarters of 2007 and 2010
Long-term unemployed (more than one year) as a percentage of total unemployment
a0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
% 2007 Q3 2010 Q3
Data are not seasonally adjusted. OECD is the weighted average of 30 OECD countries excluding Chile, Israel, Korea and Switzerland.
* Data updated for 2010 Q4.
Source: OECD estimates based on national Labour Force Surveys.
3
Figure 4. Most of the hardest-hit countries were low spenders on active programmes before the crisis
-0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
DEU LUX AUT NLD AUS NOR NZL CAN JPN SWE POL CZE BEL DNK FRA FIN GBR ITA SVN PRT GRC USA HUN SVK IRL ESP EST OECD
Increase in long-term unemployment (% of total unemployment)
left-hand scale
Spending on active measures (% of 2007 GDP)
right-hand scale
a) Changes measured from the pre-crisis trough of the seasonally-adjusted quarterly unemployment rate to the latest data (usually 2010 Q4).
b) Data for Greece exclude spending on Public Employment Services (PES).
Source: OECD calculations based on OECD Main Economic Indicators Database for the unemployment rate, national Labour Force Surveys for the long-term unemployment, and OECD Labour Market Programmes Database.
a b
4
Changes in harmonised unemployment since December 2007
a,bDec 2007 Jan 2011 %-point
change % change Dec 2007 Jan 2011 Absolute
change % change
OECD-34c 5.6 8.3 2.7 48.8 32 790 48 585 15 795 48.2
OECD (Official) 5.7 8.4 2.7 47.4 31 079 45 446 14 367 46.2
G7 5.5 7.8 2.3 41.8 20 124 28 741 8 617 42.8
European Union 6.9 9.5 2.6 37.7 16 488 23 048 6 560 39.8
Euro Area 7.4 9.9 2.5 33.8 11 571 15 775 4 204 36.3
OECD Europe 6.9 9.5 2.6 37.7 17 746 24 436 6 690 37.7
Australia 4.3 5.0 0.7 16.3 485 606 121 25.0
Austria 4.0 4.3 0.3 7.5 170 183 13 7.6
Belgium 7.2 8.0 0.8 11.1 343 393 50 14.6
Canada 6.0 7.8 1.8 30.0 1 081 1 450 369 34.1
Chile 7.2 7.3 0.1 1.4 564 614 50 8.9
Czech Republic 4.8 7.5 2.7 56.2 250 397 147 58.8
Denmark 3.3 7.8 4.5 136.4 96 227 131 136.5
Estonia 4.0 14.3 10.3 257.5 27 98 71 263.0
Finland 6.5 8.0 1.5 23.1 175 212 37 21.1
France 7.7 9.6 1.9 24.7 2 216 2 800 584 26.4
Germany 7.9 6.5 -1.4 -17.7 3 420 2 816 -604 -17.7
Greece 8.0 12.9 4.9 61.2 392 650 258 65.8
Hungary 8.0 12.6 4.6 57.5 336 546 210 62.5
Iceland 2.2 8.5 6.3 286.4 4 15 11 276.5
Ireland 4.8 13.5 8.7 181.2 108 283 175 162.0
Israeld 6.7 6.6 -0.1 -2.2 197 211 14 7.0
Italy 6.6 8.6 2.0 30.3 1 659 2 145 486 29.3
Japan 3.8 4.9 1.1 28.9 2 510 3 220 710 28.3
Korea 3.1 3.6 0.5 16.1 753 888 135 18.0
Luxembourg 4.2 4.7 0.5 11.9 9 11 2 22.2
Mexico 3.8 5.2 1.4 36.8 . . . .
Netherlands 3.3 4.3 1.0 30.3 283 373 90 31.8
New Zealand 3.4 6.8 3.4 100.0 78 158 80 102.6
Norway 2.4 3.4 1.0 41.7 62 87 25 40.3
Poland 8.3 9.7 1.4 16.9 1 400 1 720 320 22.9
Portugal 7.7 11.2 3.5 45.5 429 612 183 42.7
Slovak Republic 10.5 14.5 4.0 38.1 280 389 109 38.9
Slovenia 4.8 7.8 3.0 62.5 49 80 31 63.3
Spain 8.8 20.4 11.6 131.8 1 984 4 694 2 710 136.6
Sweden 6.0 7.9 1.9 31.7 290 395 105 36.2
Switzerland 3.2 4.5 1.3 40.6 150 217 67 44.6
Turkey 9.0 10.4 1.4 15.6 2 040 2 645 605 29.7
United Kingdom 5.1 7.8 2.7 52.9 1 574 2 447 873 55.5
United States 5.0 9.0 4.0 80.0 7 664 13 863 6 199 80.9
Harmonised unemployment rate Percentage of the labour force
Harmonised unemployment level In thousands
a) Last month available: September 2010 for Greece; October 2010 for Turkey; November 2010 for the United Kingdom;
December 2010 for Chile, Denmark and Norway; 2010 Q3 for Switzerland; and 2010 Q4 for Estonia, Iceland, Israel and New Zealand (OECD harmonised unemployment rate data are not available on a monthly basis for the last three of these countries).
b) Harmonised unemployment data for Iceland, Israel, New Zealand and Switzerland are not available on a quarterly basis but for comparison purposes the quarterly averages are reported on a monthly basis. December 2007 corresponds to 2007 Q4 for those countries.
c) OECD-34 is an estimate (for internal use only) of the harmonised unemployment level including Mexico for which the harmonised unemployment level is only available on an annual basis.
d) The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law.
Source: OECD Main Economic Indicators.
