% of labor force · annual 1990–2025 · CIA World Factbook · 225 countries
The share of the labour force without a job and looking for one. Someone inactive — a student, a retiree, a discouraged worker who has stopped searching — is not counted as unemployed, which makes the rate misleading where discouragement is widespread.
CIA World Factbook, 1990-2025, 225 countries. The source aggregates heterogeneous national definitions; comparisons are robust among OECD countries and much less so elsewhere.
A low rate does not mean a healthy labour market. Where unemployment insurance does not exist, nobody can afford to be without activity: the measured rate collapses while precariousness is at its peak.
South Africa persistently shows one of the world's highest rates, a structural legacy of apartheid. Conversely, youth unemployment is often double or triple the general rate — and it is that figure, not the average, that triggers political crises.