As of late 2011, almost 50 percent of non-students age 15 to 24 were unemployed in both Greece and Spain, and both countries had an overall unemployment rate of about 20 percent. To put that in perspective, the United States unemployment rate at the same time was about 8.6 percent, and the standardized unemployment rate among European countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was about 9.6 percent — both less than half that in either Spain or Greece. Worldwide, there were about 200 million people out of work at the end of 2011.
More facts about unemployment:
- As of 2010, almost 13 percent of non-students age 15 to 24 were unemployed worldwide, which adds up to more than 80 million people. Of these, more than 36 million were from the Asia-Pacific region.
- The highest levels of youth unemployment in the OECD during the late 2000s, besides those of Greece and Spain, were those of Slovakia, which had about a 31 percent youth unemployment rate; Hungary, with a youth unemployment rate of about 28 percent; and France, with a youth unemployment rate of about 25 percent.
- Other countries that had high unemployment rates as of the late 2000s were Zimbabwe, with a 97 percent unemployment rate; Vanuatu, with a 78 percent unemployment rate; Turkmenistan, with a 70 percent unemployment rate; and Tajikistan, with a 60 percent unemployment rate.