Employment is a key factor in self-sufficiency. In the last quarter of 2023, seven out of ten working-age adults in the OECD area were employed on average (Figure 5.1). In Iceland, the Netherlands and Switzerland more than eight out of ten persons of working age are employed, compared with five out of ten in Türkiye. Employment levels are generally above the OECD average in Nordic and Anglophone countries, and below average in Mediterranean, Latin American and non-Member countries.
In all countries men have higher employment rates than women, except for Finland where Q4 2023, the employment rate was about half a percentage point higher for women than for men. In all other countries , the gender gap in employment rates is smallest (below 3 percentage points) in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The gap is largest in Türkiye (over 35 percentage points) and still relatively high in Costa Rica and Mexico (above 25 percentage points).
Labour market conditions have generally continued to improve after the strong impact of the COVID‑19 pandemic crisis of 2020. In Q4 2023, the OECD average employment rate was 1.3 percentage points above its pre‑crisis level in Q4 2019. Employment levels increased particularly in Greece, Ireland and Poland (over 4 percentage points), but they are still below pre‑crisis levels in Colombia and Costa Rica (below 2.5 percentage points).
Across the OECD, maternal employment rates tend to increase with the age of the mother’s youngest child (Figure 5.2). In most OECD countries, employment rates are lower for mothers whose youngest child is aged between 0 and 2 than for mothers whose youngest child is between 3 and 5 and between 6 and 14, although the size of the gap varies across countries. In some OECD countries (e.g. Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal), differences by the age of the youngest child are relatively small. In others, they are very large. In Czechia, for example, the employment rate for mothers with a youngest child aged 0‑2 was 21% in 2021, while mothers with youngest children aged 3‑5 and 6‑14 have employment rates of 75% and 92%, respectively. Relatively large differences across the youngest age groups can be found in Estonia, and to a slightly lesser extent in Finland.
Digitalisation is reducing demand for routine and manual tasks while increasing demand for low- and high-skilled tasks and problem-solving and interpersonal skills. Recent results from an OECD survey revealed that 27% of jobs have a high risk of automation on average in the OECD (Figure 5.3). The study found that high-skill occupations have the lowest risk of automation, and low- and middle‑skilled jobs are the most at-risk. Risks vary across countries, ranging from 35% or more in three Central and Eastern European countries (Czechia, Hungary and the Slovak Republic) to under 20% in Luxembourg and the United Kingdom.
