In the third quarter of 2010, employment was stable in the euro area and grew in the EU27 by 0.1%. These figures are seasonally adjusted.

Falls in employment were recorded in construction (-0.9% in both the euro area and the EU27) and manufacturing (-0.1% and -0.2% respectively). Employment in agriculture increased by 0.5% in the euro area and by 0.4% in the EU27. In financial services & business activities employment increased by 0.3% in both the euro area and the EU27. In other services (which mainly include public administration, health and education) employment grew by 0.3% and 0.2% respectively. In trade, transport & communication services employment grew by 0.3% in the euro area and by 0.2% in the EU27.

In January 2011 the OECD area unemployment rate was 8.4%, down 0.1 percentage point from December. This was the second consecutive decrease, following a period of stability of around 8.5% through most of 2010 and a peak of 8.6% in November 2010. While diverging trends persist at the national level, several OECD countries registered slight falls in January. New February 2011 data show the unemployment rate for the United States down by 0.1 percentage point to 8.9% (the third consecutive decline), while the rate for Canada was stable at 7.8%.

The unemployment rate fell in both the European Union and the euro area, largely reflecting declines in France and Germany (where the unemployment rates fell by 0.1 percentage point to 9.6% and 6.5% respectively). Small falls were also recorded in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Luxembourg and Mexico. Austria, Korea, Slovenia and Sweden all experienced slight increases in their unemployment rates while the rates for Italy and Japan were stable at 8.6% and 4.9% respectively.
There were 45.4 million unemployed persons in OECD countries in January 2011, down 1.8 million from January 2010 but 14.5 million higher than in January 2008.