Unemployment is expected to remain high across the
developed world, with the eurozone area reaching a record high of
11.1 percent, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) found in a report released Tuesday.
Across the OECD member states, joblessness was predicted to remain
at 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, compared to a rate of
7.9 percent in May of this year, according to the organization's
Employment Outlook 2012.
About 14 million jobs had been lost during the course of the
global financial crisis, the OECD wrote in a statement, adding that
young and low-skilled people bore the brunt of the jobs crisis.
"It is imperative that governments use every possible means at
their disposal to help jobseekers, especially young people, by
removing barriers to job creation and investing in their education
and skills," said OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria.
"The young are at most risk of long-term damage to their careers
and livelihoods," he added.
The organization also found that most new jobs took the form of
temporary contracts due to economic uncertainties.
The European Union had the highest share of long-term unemployed,
at 44 percent of total jobless, the report found. The proportion of
people out of work for more than 12 months had risen in the U.S. too,
to 30 percent of unemployed.
Germany, meanwhile, had recovered well from the economic crisis,
with unemployment well below the OECD average, at 5.6 percent in
May.
However, income inequality was growing in Germany, the report
found, in part due to a decline in collective wage negotiations, the
proliferation of low-wage contracts and the fact that fewer employers
now join sector-wide associations.
