Back to Work

• Author: Leo Abruzzese
• Position: Prepared by , Economt Intelligence Unit (EIU). Text and charts are based on the International Jobs Report, published by the IMF, the EIU, and the OCP Policy Center in January 2015.

More than five years after the end of the Great Recession, global unemployment has returned to its precrisis level. The global jobless rate fell to 5.6 percent in 2014, essentially the same as in 2007, the year before the recession began. Over the past five years, unemployment has fallen sharply in a number of large countries, including the United States and Germany.

Still, all is not well in labor markets. Unemployment rates remain high in advanced economies and in some emerging markets—for example, at 24 percent and higher in Greece, Spain, and South Africa. And a new barometer of employment, the...