Wednesday, July 07, 2010

U.S. Lost Most Jobs Among Rich Countries

From ABCNews.com:

Unemployment in rich countries may have peaked — but there are still 17 million more people out of work than at the start of the crisis, the OECD said Wednesday.

They are "the human cost of the crisis," OECD chief Angel Gurria said, urging governments not to neglect them as they seek to repair wrecked balance sheets.

The longer a person is unemployed, the harder it typically becomes for them to gain paid employment.

"This threatens to mark whole generations," Gurria said in a news conference to mark the publication by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development of the report 'Employment Outlook 2010.'

There are 47 million unemployed in the OECD's 31 member countries — the world's most developed economies, the report says.

That's a rate of 8.6 percent, according to May 2010 figures, and compares with 5.8 percent in 2007.