OECD employment rate stable at 66.1% in the second 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 –remained stable at 66.1% in the second quarter of 2015, 0.4 percentage point below the level recorded in the second quarter of 2008.

Changes in the employment rate from the previous quarter were minor, with gains of 0.1 percentage point in the euro area (to 64.3%), in the United States (to 68.7%), in Canada (to 72.6%), and in Japan (to 73.2%) and declines by the same amount in the United Kingdom (to 72.5%).

The largest increases in employment rates relative to the previous quarter were observed in Estonia (by 1.5 percentage point to 71.7%) and in Greece (by 0.9 percentage point to 50.7%). The employment rate rose by 0.7 percentage point in Hungary (63.7%), Luxembourg (to 67.4%), Portugal (to 64.0%) and Slovenia (to 65.2%). On the other hand, it decreased by 0.3 percentage point in Austria (to 70.8%), Denmark (to 73.4%), Germany (to 73.7%) and Switzerland (to 80.1%) and by 0.4 percentage point in Finland (to 68.3%). The largest fall was observed in Belgium (down 0.7 percentage point to 61.4%).

Compared to the first quarter of 2015, the OECD employment rate for women increased by 0.2 percentage point (to 58.4%), while it was stable for men (at 74.0%); in several OECD countries such as Japan, the United States or Greece, women accounted for most of the changes in the employment rate. OECD employment rates were stable for youth (aged 15-24, at 40.0%) and for prime-aged workers (aged 25-54, at 76.4%), while it increased by 0.2 percentage point, to 58.0% for older workers (aged 55-64).

Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development