OECD employment rate raises by 0.2% in Q1
By TIOL News Service
PARIS, JULY 17, 2018: BRINGING labour market policy settings in OECD countries up to those of leading countries raises the employment rate by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2018, to 68.2%, when compared to the previous quarter. Employment gains were reported in 28 out of 36 OECD countries. According to the OECD, higher employment rates occurred alongside a higher labour force participation rate, which increased by 0.1% (to 72.2%), when compared to the previous quarter. Across the OECD area (now including Lithuania), 567 million people were employed in the first quarter of 2018.
In the euro area, the employment rate continued to rise in the first quarter of 2018 (by 0.1%, to 66.9%), albeit at a slower pace than in previous quarters. Outside the euro area, the employment rate increased most in Japan (up 0.6% to 76.3%) and Hungary (up 0.5% to 69.2%), while it decreased by 0.2% in Canada (to 73.7%) and by 0.4% in Iceland (to 85.2%, the highest employment rate in the OECD area), when compared to the previous quarter.
The employment rate increased by 0.3% in the United Kingdom (to 74.7%) and Mexico (to 61.4%) and by 0.2% in the United States(to 70.5%) and Turkey (to 52.5%). According to the OECD, the quarterly increase in the employment rate benefitted all age groups but was more pronounced for young people (aged 15 to 24), with gains of 0.5%, to 41.9%) than for workers aged 25-54, who reported a rate increase of 0.2%, to 78.3%) and older workers (aged 55-64, up 0.2%, to 61.0%). This pattern contrasts with the one that prevailed in the recent past, compared to the previous year, the increase in the OECD employment rate was stronger for older workers than for other age groups.
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