OECD Unemployment Drops to 7.6%

“Unemployment across the 34-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development fell for the third straight month in December, driven by falling jobless rates among young people and men.

The OECD said Tuesday the unemployment rate for its members—mostly countries with developed economies—fell to 7.6% from 7.7% in November and 7.8% in October, having been steady at 7.9% for much of 2013.

The sustained decline suggests the labor market has started to benefit from the modest economic recovery that took root across developed economies last year.

In another encouraging development, the rate of youth unemployment fell to 15.5% from 15.6% in November. Young people were particularly hard hit by the shrinking job market in the years following the global financial crisis, leading to fears of a “lost generation” whose life prospects would be impaired by a lack of work experience.

The number of people without jobs fell to 46.2 million from 46.9 million in November, but remained 11.5 million higher than in July 2008, before the global financial crisis and ensuing economic slowdown.

The U.S. and Japan led the decline in unemployment….”

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