14/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - The OECD Standardised Unemployment Rate fell to 6.7% in December 2004, 0.1 percentage point lower than the previous month and 0.3 percentage point lower than a year earlier, indicated the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. In the Euro area, the standardised unemployment rate was 8.9% in December 2004, 0.1 percentage point higher than the previous month but the same rate as a year earlier. The United States' standardised unemployment rate for January 2005 fell to 5.2%, 0.2 percentage point lower than the previous month and 0.5 percentage point lower than a year earlier. For Japan, the rate was 4.4% in December 2004, 0.1 percentage point lower than the previous month and 0.5 percentage point lower than in December 2003. In Canada, the standardised unemployment rate remained at 7.0% in January 2005, 0.3 percentage point lower than a year earlier. The standardised unemployment rates for the other OECD countries are available at http://www.oecd.org/statistics/data ecd.org.