In the 37 member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), unemployment fell to an average of 5.1 percent in March from 5.2 percent a month earlier, with Hungary showing one of the lowest rates among its peers.
This was the eleventh month that the average unemployment rate had either declined or stagnated — one year ago in March, the rate stood at 6.5 percent. Unemployment in March this year was already below the 5.3 percent in the last month before the start of the coronavirus pandemic in February 2020.
Compared to February, the number of unemployed in OECD countries decreased by 579,000 in March to 34,605,000, which is 900,000 less than in February 2020.
Unemployment among women fell to 5.3 percent in March from 5.4 percent in February, and for men it declined from 5.1 percent to 5 percent. For young people (aged 15-24), the rate fell from 11.1 percent to 10.9 percent, and for those over 25 from 4.5 percent to 4.4 percent.
Unemployment fell to 6.8 percent across the eurozone in March from 6.9 percent a month earlier, from 6.3 percent to 6.2 percent in the European Union as a whole, from 3.8 percent to 3.6 percent in the United States and from 2.7 percent in Japan to 2 percent, while in Canada it dropped to 5.5 percent from 5.3 percent.
According to preliminary data, the unemployment rate stabilized at 3.6 percent in the U.S. in April this year, while it declined slightly further in Canada to 5.2 percent, the lowest level since comparable data have been available in 1976.
According to data posted on the OECD’s website on Wednesday, unemployment in Hungary was 3.2 percent in March, after 3.7 percent in February.
