The ️Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) reported on April 16, 2026, that employment rates remained stable or broadly stable in 18 of 36 member countries with available data during the last quarter of 2025, according to a press release by the OECD. Employment rates fell in nine countries and rose in nine others. Labour force participation among individuals aged 15 to 64 also remained stable in 18 OECD countries.
Türkiye continued to record the lowest employment rate among OECD countries at 55.1% in Q4 2025, despite sitting at record-high levels. By contrast, employment rates have continuously exceeded 80% in Japan since Q2 2025 and in the Netherlands since Q3 2021. Türkiye, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Italy recorded the lowest labour force participation rates, all below 70%.
Compared with the same period in 2024, employment rates in Q4 2025 increased in 14 OECD countries, decreased in 12, and remained stable in 10. The euro area employment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points, supported by a rise in labour force participation. The largest year-on-year increases were recorded in Colombia, Latvia, Portugal, and Greece, all over 1.0 percentage points. Luxembourg saw employment rates decline by more than 1.0 percentage points, mainly due to a decline in the participation rate.
In February 2026, the OECD unemployment rate remained stable at 5.0%, unchanged from the previous month and 0.2 percentage points above its record low from June 2023. Unemployment rates in the European Union and the euro area stood at 5.9% and 6.2%, respectively, remaining largely unchanged compared with January. The OECD unemployment rate among younger workers aged 15–24 rose to 11.5%, widening the gap with prime-age and older workers aged 25 and above to 7.3 percentage points.
More timely estimates for March 2026 show the unemployment rate remained stable in Canada at 6.7% and broadly stable in the United States at 4.3%. The unemployment rate remained broadly stable for women, men, and prime-age and older workers. The next release is scheduled for May 22, 2026.
