OECD employment rate increases to 66.1% in first quarter of 2015 | WPN World People News

The OECD area employment rate – defined as the share of people of working-age who are in employment – increased by 0.2 percentage point, to 66.1% in the first quarter of 2015 -- the eighth consecutive quarter of increase.

Rises in employment rates were widespread across OECD countries in the first quarter of 2015. Employment rates rose in the euro area (by 0.2 percentage point, to 64.2%), the United Kingdom (by 0.4 percentage point, to 72.6%), the United States (by 0.1 percentage point, to 68.6%) and Japan (by 0.1 percentage point, to 73.0%).

Among other countries, the largest quarterly increases were observed in Iceland (by 1.9 percentage points, to 84.1%), Turkey (by 0.6 percentage point, to 50.1%), Mexico (by 0.5 percentage point, to 60.7%) and Hungary (by 0.5 percentage point, to 63.0%).

The OECD employment rate for men increased more rapidly (up 0.2 percentage point, to 74.0%) than the rate for women (up 0.1 percentage point, to 58.2%).

Over the last four quarters, the rise in the male employment rate outpaced the rise in the female employment rate in the OECD as a whole but with significant differences across countries. For example, changes in the employment rate in Korea, Mexico and Turkey were mainly driven by changes in the employment rate for women, while the increase in the employment rate in the United States was mostly due to the increase in the employment rate for men.

Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development