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OECD employment rate 1.6 percentage points below its pre-crisis level in fourth quarter 2011

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11/05/2012 - The OECD area employment rate - defined as the proportion of people of working age (those aged 15 to 64) who have a job - was 64.9% in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to new quarterly labour market statistics from the OECD. This is 1.6 percentage points lower than the 66.5% recorded in the second quarter of 2008, the quarter preceding the start of the global financial crisis.

There were 528 million persons employed in the OECD area in the fourth quarter of 2011, 2 million below the level observed at the onset of the crisis. Putting this into context, during the same period the working age population increased by 17 million persons, the unemployed increased by 13 million, and those not employed nor looking for employment (i.e. the inactive population) increased by 6 million.