Publication - RECENT LABOUR MARKET TRENDS AND PROSPECTS
OECD labour market conditions continue to improve and the OECD average employment rate is projected to return to its pre-crisis level in 2017, nearly ten years after the global financial crisis erupted. Nevertheless, the recovery remains very uneven across both countries and different groups within the workforce.
Real wage growth has also been relatively slow since 2007, raising concerns about a prolonged period of wage stagnation.
• The favourable development of the German labour market since 2009 has continued during 2015. The employment rate for the population aged 15 to 74 years is projected to surpass 65% over the course of 2016 well above the OECD average of 60.5%.
• This was associated with a further decline of the unemployment rate to 4.3% in the 1st quarter of 2016, its lowest level in 25 years and among the lowest in the OECD.
• The proportion of the workforce that has been unemployed for a least one year has also fallen continuously over the past 8 years to 1.9% in 2015 Q4, below the OECD average of 2.2%.
• In contrast to many other OECD countries, real wages have grown rapidly in Germany since 2011, being more than 14% higher at the end of 2015 than in 2007. This represents a partial unwinding of the considerable wage restraint that Germany experienced prior to the global financial crisis.
page source http://www.oecd.org/
