Employment situation, second quarter 2014, OECD | WPN World People News

The OECD area employment rate – defined as the share of people of working-age who are in employment – was stable at 65.6% in the second quarter of 2014, after four consecutive quarterly increases. This brings the OECD employment rate to a level that is 0.5 percentage point higher than one recorded year before, but still 1.0 percentage point below its level in the second quarter of 2008.

Employment rates
Employment as a percentage of
the working-age population (Left)
Change in OECD employment rates
Percentage points (Right)

The employment rate was also stable in the Euro area (at 63.8%) in the second quarter of 2014, after having increased during the two previous quarters. The employment rate rose in Japan (up 0.2 percentage point to 72.6%, the ninth consecutive quarter of increase), the United Kingdom (up 0.4 percentage point to 72.1%, the fifth consecutive quarter of increase) and the United States (up 0.2 percentage point to 68.0%), while it decreased in Canada (down 0.1 percentage point to 72.2%), Korea (down 0.3 percentage point to 65.1%) and Mexico (down 0.4 percentage point to 60.4%).

Compared with the second quarter of 2013, the employment rate increased in 25 OECD countries, with the largest annual gains observed in Hungary (up 3.4 percentage points to 61.7%), Portugal (up 2.3 percentage points to 62.4%) and New Zealand (up 1.7 percentage points to 74.4%, in spite of a slight decrease in the last quarter).

The OECD employment rate for youth increased by 0.1 percentage point to 39.7% in the second quarter of 2014, its highest level since the second quarter of 2009. This is the second consecutive quarter of increase for this age group, after 3 quarters of stability. Compared with one year ago, the employment rate for workers aged 55-64 increased by 1.1 percentage point, to 57.3%. Finally, the OECD employment rates for women (57.8%) and men (73.5%) were stable in the second quarter of 2014 while increasing by, respectively, 0.5 and 0.4 percentage point compared with one year ago.

Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development