The unemployment rate for the OECD area was steady in April 2010 at 8.7%, unchanged from March. The general picture is of broad stability across OECD countries. The May 2010 rate for Canada was 8.1%, unchanged from April. But the May rate for the United States, at 9.7%, fell by 0.2 percentage points from April, reflecting the hiring of temporary workers for the 2010 US Census.

The OECD unemployment rate remains at a level close to post-war highs. The countries with the highest rates across the OECD area in April were Spain (19.7%), the Slovak Republic (14.1%), Ireland (13.2%), Portugal (10.8%), Hungary (10.4%) and France (10.1%). The lowest rates were recorded in Korea (3.7%) and the Netherlands (4.1%).

In April 2010 the number of unemployed persons in the OECD stood at 46.5 million, 3.3 million higher than in April 2009.