Job Creation Should Be Policy Priority, O.E.C.D. Report Finds

PARIS — High unemployment rates in most of the developed world are mainly a result of the tepid economic recovery, rather than a lack of appropriate skills in the work force, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report on Wednesday.

The findings could hold significant implications for policy makers aiming to reduce unemployment, while adding fuel to arguments of economists who say that eurozone governments need to abandon austerity budgeting and instead take steps to stimulate their economies.

The developed world “is still recording a jobs deficit,” the report said, noting that almost 45 million people are without work in the most developed economies — 12.1 million more than before the global financial crisis hit almost six years ago.

The number of openings per unemployed job seeker remains low by historical standards, according to the report by the O.E.C.D., a research organization and discussion forum for the world’s developed economies. Its 34 members include the United States, Japan, and all 28 European Union nations, but not rising economic giants like China and India.

The annual jobs outlook is part of a regular series of publications by the O.E.C.D., which is based in Paris. But this year’s is especially timely for the eurozone, as a debate intensifies over how to pull the bloc out of its economic torpor. That sense of urgency is putting pressure on the European Central Bank, which holds its monthly meeting on Thursday, to take further steps to stimulate the region’s economy.

Joblessness that results from a downturn in the business cycle is called cyclical unemployment — the type of joblessness that currently prevails, according to the report. But the document also noted evidence of another more fundamental type of joblessness — known as structural unemployment — which occurs, for example, when workers cannot get jobs because they lack the skills that are in demand. Policy makers are particularly concerned about preventing structural unemployment from becoming firmly rooted, to avoid the creation of a “lost generation” of workers.