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Employment: Job creation must be a top priority in months ahead, says OECD
7 July 2010
OECD countries need to create 17 million jobs to get employment levels back to where they were before the crisis, according to the OECD's Employment Outlook 2010. Unemployment may have peaked in the OECD area, having reached 8.6% in May 2010, it says.
"Creating jobs has to be a top priority for governments," said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, launching the report in Paris. "Cutting unemployment and fiscal deficits at the same time is a daunting challenge but it needs to be tackled head on. Despite signs of recovery in most countries, the risk remains that millions of people may lose touch with the labour market. High joblessness as the new normal can not be accepted and has to be tackled by a comprehensive policy strategy."
Today's "jobs gap" varies widely between countries: in the United States nearly 10 million jobs need to be created. In Ireland, 318 000 jobs are needed to return to pre-crisis levels, that is one job for every 5 existing jobs today. Spain has lost 2.5 million jobs since the end of 2007.
Altogether, there are 47 million unemployed in the OECD area today. But taking into account people who have given up looking for work or are working part-time but want to work full-time, the actual number of unemployed and under-employed in OECD countries could be about 80 million, according to the Outlook.
