THE OECD area employment rate – the share of the working-age population with jobs – increased by 0.1 percentage point in the first quarter of 2019, to 68.7%, driven entirely by an increase in the female employment rate (up 0.2 percentage point). Employment rates are well above previous peaks in the OECD area, the euro area and in most major OECD countries (Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom), but remain below the previous peak in the United States.

In the euro area, the employment rate continued to increase in the first quarter of 2019 (by 0.2 percentage point to 67.8%), with stronger gains recorded in Austria, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic and Spain. It declined in Belgium (by 0.3 percentage point) and marginally in France.

Outside the euro area, the employment rate rose by 0.4 percentage point in Mexico (to 62.0%), by 0.2 percentage point in Japan (to 77.5%) and the United Kingdom (to 75.1%), and by 0.1 percentage point in Canada, Korea and the United States. By contrast, the employment rate fell for the second straight quarter (by 0.6 percentage point) in Turkey (to 50.8%).

The increase in the youth (people aged 15 to 24) employment rate in the first quarter of 2019 (up 0.2 percentage point), outperformed all other age groups, for the OECD as a whole. However, over the year, the youth employment rate showed the smallest increase, and the employment rate for youth (42.2%) remains significantly below other age groups.