The unemployment rate for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries remained stable month-on-month at 6.9% in December 2020, remaining 1.7% above the level observed in February 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the labour market.

In December 2020, the unemployment rate was also stable in the euro area, at 8.3% (1.1% above its February 2020 level), with falls of 0.2% or more in Belgium, Lithuania, Portugal and Slovenia and increases of 0.2% or more in Austria, Finland, Italy and Luxembourg.

In December, the unemployment rate was unchanged in Japan, at 2.9% (0.5% above its pre-pandemic level) and Israel (4.8%). It increased by 0.5% in Korea (to 4.6%), Iceland by 0.1% to 6.1%, while it continued to decline in Australia (to 6.6% in December, from 6.8% in November), Colombia (to 14.6%, from 15.3%) and Mexico (to 4.2%, from 4.5%).

In the US where the number of people on temporary lay-offs has been relatively steady since October, the unemployment rate was stable at 6.7%, 3.2% higher than in February 2020. In Canada, it increased by 0.2% (to 8.8%). More recent data for January 2021 show that the unemployment rate declined by 0.4% in the United States (to 6.3%) while it continued to rise (by 0.6%, to 9.4%) in Canada.

In spite of stable aggregate unemployment rates in the OECD and the euro area, in December 2020, the OECD youth unemployment rate (people aged 15 to 24) increased slightly to 14.4% (from 14.2% in November). In the euro area the youth unemployment rate increased to 18.5% (from 18.1% in November), the second consecutive monthly increase.

The OECD unemployment rate for women increased by 0.1% to 7.1% while for men it fell by 0.1% to 6.8%.