We are taking a look at the OECD's latest unemployment report.  Believe it or not, a few developed countries have seen unemployment drop back to near pre-recession levels.  Germany and Austria actually have lower unemployment than in late 2007.  Spain is at the other end of the spectrum, with unemployment 12 points higher than pre-recession levels.  The US, of course, is closer to Spain in this regard than Germany. 

Digging deeper into the unemployment numbers, some countries have a deeper, potentially more damaging problem: long term unemployment.  From the report:

The crisis has had different impacts on labour market outcomes across countries. This reflected differences in the degree of exposure to specific features of the crisis (e.g. the aftermath of financial and housing market bubbles) as well as differences in pre-crisis policy settings and measures implemented in response to the crisis. Concerns about unemployment persistence are particularly pronounced in countries that have experienced large increases in long-term unemployment. The longer individuals remain unemployed, the more difficult it becomes for them to find a job and the less they may try, a phenomenon referred to as unemployment duration dependence or hysteresis. In many countries (e.g. Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States) the share of long-term unemployment has risen significantly during the crisis, albeit in some cases from a very low level (Figure 2). In other countries (e.g. Italy and France), the share of long-term unemployment was already high before the crisis, exposing them also to the risk of a persistent increase in unemployment into the recovery.

Read Persistence of high unemployment: what risks? what policies?  here.