The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development unemployment rate was stable in October 2018 at 5.2%, unchanged from September and three percentage points below the January 2013 peak. Across the OECD countries, 33.2 million people were unemployed.

In the euro area, the unemployment rate was also stable in October, remaining at 8.1% for the fourth consecutive month. Rates varied from a decline of 0.3 percentage points to 6.3% in Lithuania to a 0.3 percentage point increase in Italy to 10.6%. Since its February 2013 peak, the euro area unemployment rate has declined by 4.0 percentage points, with the largest falls recorded in Ireland, down 9.2 percentage points; Portugal, down 10.6 percentage points; and Spain, down 11.5 percentage points.

Outside of Europe, the October unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point in three countries, declining to 5.8% in Canada, 3.9% in Korea, and 3.2% in Mexico. It increased by 0.1 percentage point in Japan to 2.4% and was unchanged in the United States at 3.7%, at 6.3 percentage points below its October 2009 peak.

More recent data for November show that the unemployment rate declined further in Canada by 0.2 percentage points, to 5.6%, the lowest level since comparable data became available in 1976, and remained stable in the United States.

The OECD unemployment rate for youth (people aged 15 to 24) declined by 0.1 percentage point in October to 11.0%. However, in the euro area, unemployment rate for youth rose by 0.2 percentage points to 17.3% — the second consecutive monthly increase. The OECD unemployment rate for women, stable at 5.4%, remained 0.3 percentage points above that for men, which was also stable at 5.1%.