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Employment rate in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) area fell by 4 percentage points to 64.6 percent in the second quarter of 2020, its lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2010.
Across the OECD area, 560 million people were in employment in the second quarter of 2020, 34 million less than in the previous quarter, the international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives, said in a news release today.
"Employment rates fell across all population groups. While male and female employment rates both fell by around 4.0 percentage points (to 72.0% and 57.3% respectively), the youth employment rate dropped more sharply (down 5.6 percentage points, to 36.3%) than for people aged 25-54 (down 4.0 percentage points, to 74.7%) and for those aged 55- 64 (down 2.8 percentage points, to 59.3%)," OECD said.
In Canada and the US employment rates dropped by 8.5 percentage points (to 64.7%) and 8.9 percentage points (to 62.5%) respectively in the second quarter. With many furloughed workers now returning to work, more recent data for the third quarter of 2020 show employment rates increasing in Canada (up 5.7 percentage points, to 70.4%) and the US (up 3.8 percentage points, to 66.3%), but still remaining 2.8 and 5.1 percentage points below the level of the first quarter of 2020.
In the euro area the employment rate decreased by 1.9 percentage points, to 66.2% in the second quarter of 2020, with decreases of 3.0 percentage points or more in Estonia, Ireland and Spain. Among other countries, it fell by 1.0 percentage point in Japan (to 77.0%), by 0.2 percentage point in the United Kingdom (to 75.4%), and by more than 3.0 percentage points in Australia, Chile, Colombia, Iceland and Turkey.
The UAE is a member of the OECD. In the second quarter, the OECD recognised the Emirates' efforts in fighting the coronavirus.
"The Covid-19 crisis has bluntly reminded us that, as our countries form part of a global interconnected community, international cooperation has never been so important. The UAE has proven to be an important and innovative partner, as we collectively strive to develop the most effective policies to address such an unprecedented crisis. Looking forward, we are convinced that the United Arab Emirates can play an important role in converting this crisis into an opportunity for the MENA region, and we welcome working with the UAE to make this possible," Andreas Schaal, Director of Global Relations, OECD, said in May.
(Writing by Seban Scaria; editing by Daniel Luiz)
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