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While we may be focused on unemployment in the United States, the loss of jobs has become a truly global affair. Next year, unemployment rates in the industrialized world are expected to hit their highest levels since the second world war, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Projections put the jobless rate for the 30 countries that belong to the OECD at 10% in the second half of 2010, which translates to 57 million people without jobs. Unemployment reached its highest post-war level in June at 8.3%. The organization calls the short-term outlook "grim," especially with the early stages of a recovery next year anticipated to be cautious.
The OECD report explains, "This unwelcome phenomenon occurred in a number of OECD countries in past recessions when unemployment remained at a new higher plateau compared with the pre-crisis level even after output returned to potential, and it took many years, if ever, to bring it down again to the pre-crisis level."
Within the OECD, jobless rates for member countries vary. The Netherlands has the lowest, 3.3% as of June 2009, while Spain's 18.1% puts it at the top of the list. The European Union's rate of unemployment was 8.9%, with the United States 9.5% at the time. Across the OECD, close to 15 million people lost their jobs.
The report continues, "There is great uncertainty looking forward, but labor market conditions appear set to deteriorate further in the coming months," and expects "a rather muted recovery surfacing only in the first half of 2010."
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