MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Developed countries fail to cut unemployment; Euro zone rate stands at 10%

In absolute terms 44.5 million people in OECD countries are without jobs

Developed countries are failing to cut unemployment, according to figures released this week by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). July’s figures show unemployment at 8.2% for the 34-country group – unchanged for five consecutive months.The Euro zone is faring even worse, with unemployment sticking at 10%.

Significant changes were experienced by a few countries over the month. Mexico saw unemployment fall by 0.5 percentage points to 5.3%, while Luxembourg’s increased by 0.3 percentage points to 4.6%.

High unemployment rates continued to persist in the US, Ireland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic and Spain.

Spain remains the worst performer with unemployment at a staggering 21.2%. It is over eighteen months since the rate was last below 20%. Meanwhile South Korea has enjoyed very low rates, at 3.3% since May.

In absolute terms these percentages translate to 44.5 million people unemployed across the OECD in July 2011. That is down 2 million from the same month in 2010, but still 11.4 million higher than in July 2008, when the total unemployment rate was 6.1%.

The lack of movement in the US jobs market – unemployment has remained at 9.1% has heightened expectations of a further round of quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve.

In the UK, too, a further loosening of monetary policy has been predicted because of the weak economic and employment outlook, though the Bank of England held off from such measures in last week’s interest rate decision.