Employment Policies

About Statistics Publications & Documents Information by Country

Release of updated OECD Employment Protection Indicators

09-Jul-2009

The OECD Employment Protection Indicators quantify the costs and procedures involved in dismissing individuals or groups of workers or hiring workers on fixed-term or temporary work agency contracts. Data are now available for 2008 for 40 countries (30 OECD member countries plus 10 emerging economies - Brazil, Chile, China, Estonia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Russian Federation, Slovenia and South Africa) from the OECD’s new Employment Protection website:

www.oecd.org/employment/protection

France should prioritise the employment of disadvantaged young people

20-May-2009

France should do more to ease the transition of unskilled young people into employment. The government should give priority to helping young people the furthest removed from the job market and to strengthening the social protection of the most disadvantaged, according to a new report by the OECD.

Governments must do more to help most vulnerable amid rising unemployment, urges OECD

15-May-2009

Governments must urgently adapt their labour market policies to help their most vulnerable citizens in the economic crisis, as was concluded at the High-Level Forum on Sickness, Disability and Work in May 2009. Key to this will be avoiding that the crisis further strengthens a disability benefit culture that pushes many people with disability onto benefit schemes and out of work for the rest of their lives.

Tackling the financial and economic crisis

The global economic crisis is affecting families and communities across the planet. Restoring stability, confidence and growth is the priority: the OECD is working with the world’s governments and other organisations to get economies moving again.

Australia should intervene quickly to avert a major rise in youth unemployment, says OECD

20-Apr-2009

Young people are likely to be hit hard by rising unemployment as the global downturn continues. In Australia, where more young people work than in most OECD countries, the government should encourage more teenagers to stay in school past the age of 16 in order to boost their skills and improve their long-term career prospects.

Seminar on Employment outcomes and inequality: Brazil, China and India

15-Apr-2009

The OECD Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Directorate and the OECD Development Centre jointly organised a seminar on "Employment outcomes and inequality: New evidence, Links and Policy responses in Brazil, China and India" which took place on the 8th April 2009 at the OECD Conference Centre. Based on an in-depth assessment of labour market trends in each of these countries, the seminar discussed policy options towards more and better jobs.

Chile should create more and better jobs to cut poverty and inequality, says OECD

06-Apr-2009

Chile should invest more in employment and active social policies in order to reduce its high levels of income inequality and poverty, according to a new OECD report.

Massive rise in unemployment needs fast, decisive response, says OECD’s Gurria

30-Mar-2009

“Governments need to take quick and decisive action to avoid the financial crisis becoming a fully-blown social crisis with scarring effects on vulnerable workers and low income households,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría told G8 Labour and Employment Ministers in Rome today.

OECD unemployment rate rises to 7.8% in April 2009

09-Jun-2009

The unemployment rate for the OECD area was 7.8% in April 2009, 0.1 percentage point higher than the previous month and 2.2 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

Sweden’s sickness and disability reforms on track but could be improved, says OECD

04-Mar-2009

Sweden’s ongoing reforms of its sickness and disability policies are a step in the right direction but more needs to be done if they are to live up to their promise, according to a new OECD report.

Creating More and Better Jobs in Brazil, China and India

on 08-Apr-2009

The OECD Development Centre has recently organised a joint seminar with the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS) focusing on the evolution of the quantity and quality of employment and its impact on poverty and inequality, with a specific focus on Brazil, China and India.

Creating Opportunities - Integration, Employment and Social Mobility: European Experiences and Scope for Manoeuvre

27-Jan-2009

By Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General.
The topic of the integration of immigrants is a particularly important one in these challenging times as OECD countries grapple with the economic and financial crisis and the rapid rise of unemployment. Integration is difficult even in good times, so we need to double our efforts to manage it well in bad times.

Japan could do more to help young people find stable jobs

18-Dec-2008

Young people in Japan are finding it increasingly hard to get permanent jobs and the Japanese authorities should expand vocational training schemes and increase social security coverage for young non-regular workers in order to help them.