PARIS, March 13 -- The unemployment rate for the 34-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was stable at 7.6 percent in January 2014, with 46.2 million people looking for jobs, the organization said Thursday.

The unemployment rate for the 18-member eurozone was also steady, but at a much higher rate of 12.0 percent in January, according to the latest data released by the Paris-based think tank.

A total of 46.2 million people are looking for work across the OECD area, 3.8 million lower than the peak in April 2010 but 11.5 million higher than in July 2008, when the global financial crisis sprouted.

The jobless rates in the Slovak Republic and Denmark have dropped 0.2 percentage point to 13.6 percent and 7.0 percent respectively, the largest fall in the eurozone, the OECD said.

The rate in Germany, the largest European economy, fell by 0.1 percentage point to 5.0 percent in January, while it was up 0.1 percentage point to 10.9 percent in France and 0.2 percentage point to 12.9 percent in Italy.

Meanwhile, the rate of youth unemployment in OECD countries increased by 0.2 percentage point to 15.7 percent, 1.0 percentage point lower than the year before.

Youth unemployment remains a chronic problem in several eurozone countries, including Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and the Slovak Republic, the OECD data showed.

The OECD, which groups 34 advanced economies including the United States, Britain, France, and Germany, provides economic information for the governments to help them tackle economic, social and governance challenges.