Korea’s unemployment rate for March lowest in OECD

13-May-2010 Intellasia | Yonhap | 7:01 AM

South Korea recorded an unemployment rate of 3.8 percent in March, down 0.6 percent point from February, according to a report of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released Tuesday.

The rate was the lowest among the 30 member nations of the OECD and 4.9 percent lower than the OECD average of 8.7 percent.

South Korea’s unemployment rate remained at the 3-percent level from 2007-2009. It surged to 4.8 percent in January, but dropped to 4.4 percent in February.

The Netherlands marked the second-lowest unemployment rate of 4.1 percent in March, followed by Mexico and Austria with an identical 4.9 percent.

Spain recorded the highest rate of 19.1 percent, followed by Slovakia (14.1 percent), Ireland (13.2 percent), Hungary (11.0 percent), Portugal (10.5 percent) and France (10.1 percent).

The total number of jobless people in all OECD member nations in March was tallied at 46.1 million, up 3.9 million from the same period last year.

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