Employment situation, OECD, second quarter 2019 | WPN World People News

The OECD area employment rate – the share of the working-age population with jobs – remained at 68.7% in the second quarter of 2019.

Source: Quarterly Labour Market Statistics, OECD

In the euro area, the employment rate continued to increase in the second quarter of 2019 (by 0.1 percentage point, to 67.9%), with gains of more than 0.5 percentage point in Belgium, Greece and Luxembourg, and declines of 0.3 percentage point or more in Ireland and the Slovak Republic.

Outside the euro area, the employment rate rose by 0.2 percentage point or more in Canada (to 74.5%), Mexico (to 62.2%), Poland (to 68.0%) and Switzerland (to 80.5%). It increased by 0.1 percentage point in Japan (to 77.6%) and the United States (to 71.2%) and was stable in the United Kingdom (at 75.1%). By contrast, the employment rate fell by 0.3 percentage point or more in Israel (to 69.0%), Sweden (to 77.4%) and Turkey (to 50.0%).

While the employment level in services continued to increase in the OECD area in the second quarter of 2019, it was stable in industry and declined in agriculture. As a result, the share in total employment continued to increase for services (to 73.7% in the second quarter of 2019, compared to 73.5% in first quarter of 2019) but declined for industry (to 22.0% from 22.1%) and agriculture (to 4.3% from 4.4%). Services employment accounted for more than 80% in Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development