The unemployment rate for the OECD area was 6.8% in December 2008, 0.2 percentage point higher than the previous month and 1.1 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

the previous month and 0.8 percentage point higher than a year earlier. For the United States the unemployment rate for January 2009 was 7.6%, 0.4 percentage point higher than the previous month and 2.6 percentage points higher than a year earlier. For Japan, the rate was 4.5% in December 2008, 0.5 percentage point higher than the previous month and 0.7 percentage point higher than in December 2007.

In December 2008, the unemployment rate for France was 8.1%, 0.1 percentage point higher than the previous month and 0.4 percentage point higher than a year earlier. For Germany, the rate was 7.2% in December 2008, 0.1 percentage point higher than the previous month but 0.7 percentage point lower than in December 2007. For Canada, the unemployment rate was 7.2% in January 2009, 0.6 percentage point higher the previous month and 1.3 percentage points higher than a year earlier. In October 2008, the rate in the United Kingdom was 6.1%, 0.2 percentage point higher than the previous month and 1.0 percentage point higher than in October 2007.