The unemployment rate for countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development area was stable at 6.8% in January 2021, remaining 1.6% above the level recorded in February 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the labour market.

The OECD unemployment rate for women (at 7.0%) remained 0.4% above that for men (at 6.6%) in January 2021. This gap was about the same level as in February 2020, and below the 0.9% recorded in April 2020.

Meanwhile, the OECD youth unemployment rate (people aged 15 to 24) decreased slightly to 14.0% in January (from 14.2% in December 2020).

In January 2021, declines of 0.2% or more were recorded in Australia (to 6.4%), as well as Colombia (to 14.3%) and Israel (to 4.5%), while a marginal decline was registered in Japan (to 2.9%).

The unemployment rate increased by 0.2% in Mexico (to 4.5%), by 0.6% in Canada (to 9.4%) and by 0.9% in South Korea (to 5.4%, its highest level since October 1999).

In January 2021, the unemployment rate was stable in the euro area as well, at 8.1% for the third consecutive month, 0.8% above its February 2020 level. The largest declines in this area, of 0.2% or more, were recorded in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain, while increases of 0.2% or more were seen in Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and the Slovak Republic.

The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point in the US (to 6.3%) in January, and more recent data show that it declined further, by 0.1%, in February 2021 (to 6.2%), along with a decrease in the number of people on temporary lay-off.

OECD noted that unemployment statistics do not account for the full amount of labour market slack due to Covid-19, as some non-employed people may be classified as “out of the labour force”, because, due to the pandemic, they are either not able to actively look for a job or are not available to work.