The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said Monday the unemployment rate for the OECD area rose to 7.6% in March, 0.3 percentage point higher than the previous month and 2.0 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

In the Euro area, the unemployment rate was 8.9% in March, 0.2 percentage point higher than the previous month and 1.7 percentage points higher than the same period last year. For the United States, the unemployment rate for April was 8.9%, 0.4 percentage point higher than the previous month and 3.9 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

For Japan, the rate was 4.8% in March, 0.4 percentage point higher than the previous month and 1.0 percentage point higher than the same period last year. For France, the rate was 4.8%, 0.2 percentage point higher than the previous month and 1.2 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

For Germany, the rate was 7.6%, 0.2 percentage point higher than the previous month and 0.2 percentage point higher than in March 2008, for Canada, the unemployment rate was 8.0%, the same as the previous month and 1.9 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

In January 2009, the rate in the United Kingdom was 6.6%, 0.2 percentage point higher than the previous month and 1.5 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

The unemployment rate for the major seven world economies grew to 7.5% from 7.2%. The figure for the European Union was at 8.3% in March, up from the previous month's rate of 8.1%.

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