Unemployment – International Comparisons: Key Economic Indicators

The OECD produces harmonised unemployment rates for OECD members based on the ILO definition of unemployment.

The UK harmonised unemployment rate for Q4 2020 was 5.1%. This was above the rate of Germany (4.6%) but below that of the US (6.8%) and France (8.1%).

The unemployment rate for the Eurozone fell from 8.6% to 8.3% in Q4 2020, while in the G7 it fell from 7.1% to 6.1%.

Almost all of the OECD countries have seen an increase in their unemployment rates since the coronavirus outbreak, although the size of the increase varies widely from country to country.

Spain had the highest unemployment rate out of the OECD member states for Q4 2020 (16.2%) followed by Greece at 16.1%. Japan had the lowest unemployment rate in the OECD at 3.0%.

Youth (aged 15-24) unemployment is a major issue in many developed economies at present. In Q4 2020 youth unemployment was 40.3% in Spain, 33.8% in Greece and 30.7% in Italy. UK youth unemployment stood at 14.4%.