The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage point, to 6 per cent, in March 2017. Across the OECD area there were 37.5 million people unemployed, 4.9 million more than in April 2008, before the crisis. Ireland’s unemployment rate for the same month was 6.4 per cent.

OECD youth unemployment rate fell by 0.2 per cent in March, to 12.1 per cent, “continuing the downward trend seen in recent months”, according to the OECD. Euro area youth unemployment also fell, but is still higher than OECD unemployment at 19.4 per cent. Meanwhile, Ireland’s youth unemployment rate was 13.9 per cent in March, also higher than the OECD area as a whole.

Female unemployment in the OECD in March was 6.2 per cent while male unemployment was 5.9 per cent. Ireland scored below average for female unemployment with only 5.8 per cent of women unemployed, but was 1 percentage point above average with regard to male unemployment.

The country with the highest unemployment in the OECD area was Spain, with 18.2 per cent unemployment in March, while the country with the lowest rate of unemployment was Japan with 2.8 per cent unemployment.