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Employment rates by gender
Employment rates show the percentage of persons of working age who are in employment. In the short term, these rates are sensitive to the economic cycle, but in the longer term they are significantly affected by government policies with regard to higher education and income support and by policies that facilitate employment of women.
Employment rates for men and women differ both between countries and over time in individual countries. Employment rates are here shown for total employment and for men and women separately.
Definition
Employment rates are calculated as the ratio of the employed to the working age population. To calculate this employment rate, the population of working age is divided into two groups: those who are employed and those who are not. Employment is generally measured through household labour force surveys and, according to the ILO Guidelines, employed persons are defined as those aged 15 or over who report that they have worked in gainful employment for at least one hour in the previous week. Those not in employment consist of persons who are out of work but seeking employment, students and all others who have excluded themselves from the labour force for one reason or another, such as incapacity or the need to look after young children or elderly relatives.
Working age is generally defined as persons in the 15 to 64 age bracket although in some countries working age is defined as 16 to 64.
Comparability
All OECD countries use the ILO Guidelines for measuring employment, but the operational definitions used in national labour force surveys vary slightly in Iceland and Turkey. Employment levels are also likely to be affected by changes in the survey design and/or the survey conduct, but employment rates are likely to be fairly consistent over time.
For the denominators – the population in each age group – the data are taken from labour force surveys.
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Long-term trends Over the period shown in the tables, total employment rates (men and women) have fallen in 10 countries and risen in 21. Particularly large falls were recorded in Turkey, Poland, Czech Republic, Sweden and Slovak Republic and particularly large increases occurred in Ireland, Spain and the New Zealand. Growth in employment rates was very different for men and women. Employment rates for men decreased in 18 countries during the period with an annual fall of more than 0.5% in Poland, Turkey and Germany. For women, on the other hand, employment rates grew in 25 countries with increases of 1.5% per year or more recorded for Spain, Ireland, Greece, Netherlands, Italy and Belgium. Clearly, these differences in the growth of employment rates are leading to convergence in the rates for women and men although differences remain large in many countries. |
Source
- OECD (2006), OECD Employment Outlook, OECD, Paris.
Further information
Analytical publications
- Durand, M., J. Simon and C. Webb (1992), OECD’s Indicators of International Trade and Competitiveness, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 120, OECD, Paris.
- Jeaumotte, F. (2003), Female Labour Force Participation, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 376, OECD, Paris.
- OECD (2002-2004), Babies and Bosses – Reconciling Work and Family Life, series, OECD, Paris.
Statistical publications
- OECD (2004), Quarterly Labour Force Statistics, OECD, Paris.
- OECD (2006), Labour Force Statistics, OECD, Paris.
Online databases
Websites
- OECD Labour Statistics Database, www.oecd.org/statistics/labour.
- Putting More Women to Work: A Colloquium on Employment, Child Care and Taxes, www.oecd.org/employment/colloquium/women.
| Texts | |
| • | Indicator web page |
| • | Indicator in PDF |
| Tables (xls) | |
| • | Employment rates: total |
| • | Employment rates: men |
| • | Employment rates: women |
| Graphics | |
| • | Employment rates: total |
| • | Employment rates: men |
| • | Employment rates: women |
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