OECD jobless rate at 8.6% in Sept

The unemployment rate in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries remained at 8.6 per cent for the second straight month in September.

OECD region -- comprising 29 member countries, including the US, Australia, Japan and Switzerland -- has been one of the worst hit by the global financial meltdown and many nations have witnessed soaring job losses.

"The unemployment rate for the OECD area was 8.6 per cent in September 2009, the same as the previous month and 2.3 percentage points higher than a year earlier," OECD said in a statement on Monday.

Reflecting a strained labour market, the rate of unemployment in the US shot up to a 26-year high of 10.2 per cent in October.

In the Euro zone -- a grouping of 16 countries which share the common currency euro -- the jobless rate stood at 9.7 per cent in September.

Among other OECD nations, the unemployment rate in France and Germany touched 10 per cent and 7.6 per cent in September, respectively.

Even as the economic conditions worldwide are slowly improving, more number of jobs are evaporating as many companies are trimming their workforce, to bring down costs.