The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) employment rate increased in the last quarter of 2018, hitting record levels since the organization began to collect employment data from its members. The employment rate for the fourth quarter of 2018 was 68.6%, with 570,938 million employed individuals as compared to 569,489 million from the third quarter and gaining 6.5 million since then.
The rate increased by 0.1 percentage point from the last quarter figure, showing an increase in employment levels in 26 out of 36 OECD countries, most of them considered developed and high-income countries. In the last quarter of 2017, the figure was 0.6 percentage points lower.
Among the OECD countries, Iceland was the one with the best performance with its rate at 85.5%, followed by Switzerland (80.3%) and Sweden (77.9%). In contrast, the country with the lowest employment level was Turkey, with 51.5%, followed by Greece (55.6%).
The United States had an employment rate of 71%, bigger than its last reading in the third quarter, while the European Union closed the year with a level of 68.9%, also higher than the third quarter figure.
The explanation for this increase varies depending on the country. For example, the general increase in the employment rate can be explained by a higher labor force participation just as the United States numbers, while the European Union data is probably related to lower unemployment levels.
The OECD defines the employment rate as "the ratio of the employed to the working age population", where an employed person is defined as those individuals aged 15 or more who "report working in gainful employment for at least one hour in the previous week or who had a job but were absent from work during the reference week."
Those rather positive figures come after the OECD revised its global growth forecast for 2019 last month.