The FINANCIAL -- Unemployment rates in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries have increased over the last year when the adverse impact of the global financial crisis hit businesses, a recent report published by the OECD has shown.

According to data, the average unemployment rate in OECD countries was 6.3 percent in August 2008, just prior to the month when the crisis erupted. Because of the influence of the global financial crisis, this figure increased by 2.3 points and rose to 8.6 percent in August of this year. With a 18.9 percent unemployment rate, Spain had the highest unemployment rate of OECD countries in August of this year, followed by Ireland with 12.5 percent, Slovakia with 11.6 percent and France with 9.9 percent.

"While the unemployment rate in the US was 6.2 percent in August 2008, this figure increased by 56.5 percent and was 9.7 percent in August of this year. The EU also suffered a 30 percent increase in its unemployment levels over the previous year, climbing from 7 percent in August of last year to 9.1 percent in the same month of this year. The countries in the eurozone also saw an upswing in their rates of unemployment, which rose by 26.3 percent in August 2009 over the same month of 2008, climbing from 7.6 percent to 9.6 percent," Today's Zaman informs.

The lowest unemployment rate in August of this year was seen in the Netherlands with 3.5 percent, which was followed by South Korea with 3.8 percent. Ireland has suffered the highest increase in its unemployment rate, which nearly doubled over the last year, increasing from 6.3 percent in August 2008 to 12.5 percent in the same month this year. Denmark also saw a 78.8 percent increase in its unemployment level this August over August 2008, climbing from 3.3 percent to 5.9 percent. The smallest increase in the unemployment rate is seen in Belgium and Germany over the last year, which rose from 7.5 percent to 7.9 percent and 7.2 percent to 7.7 percent, respectively.

Because Turkey's unemployment rates in August of this year had not yet been announced by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), the OECD report does not cover Turkey's data. According to the latest unemployment report released by TurkStat, the unemployment rate in June 2009 was 13 percent, while this figure was 9.8 in August last year.

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