OECD employment and labour force participation rates at record highs in Q2 2026; unemployment rate remains near record low in August
OECD employment and labour force participation rates reached record highs in Q2 2026, at 70.4% and 74.2%, respectively. However, both rates increased by 0.1 percentage point (p.p.) or less from the previous quarter, remaining broadly stable (Figure 1). Compared with the same quarter in 2025, both rates were also broadly unchanged. Employment and labour force ...
In the second quarter of 2026, employment and labor force participation rates within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) soared to record highs, with figures of 70.4% and 74.2% respectively. However, these rates only saw modest increases of 0.1 percentage points or less from the previous quarter, indicating a period of relative stability. Notably, these rates remained consistent when compared to the same period in 2025.
The same trends were observed in the unemployment rate, which stayed remarkably steady in August 2026 at 5.0%, barely surpassing its all-time low of 4.8% from June 2023 by a mere 0.2 percentage points. This stability in unemployment contrasts with varying trends among individual OECD countries, ranging from 54.8% in Türkiye to over 80% in Iceland, Japan, and the Netherlands.
The year-on-year increases in employment rates were most significant in Colombia and Portugal, at 1.5 and 1.3 percentage points respectively, driven by higher labor force participation coupled with lower unemployment. Conversely, Iceland and Finland experienced the largest drops in employment rates, falling by 3.3 and 1.1 percentage points respectively, primarily due to increased unemployment.
When broken down by demographic groups, both women's and men's employment and labor force participation rates experienced a slight rise of 0.2 percentage points in Q2 2026. For older workers aged 55-64, these rates saw a more pronounced increase of 0.4 and 0.2 percentage points respectively. In contrast, prime-age workers aged 25-54 and young people aged 15-24 saw no significant changes.
Unemployment trends in August 2026 mirrored the general stability seen throughout the quarter, with some countries like Colombia seeing an uptick in unemployment rates. Conversely, countries such as Denmark, Finland, Greece, Israel, and Türkiye experienced decreases in their unemployment rates. The situation for younger workers aged 15-24 worsened, with their unemployment rate rising to 11.3% from 11.0% in July, widening the gap between younger workers and older workers.
Even when adjusted for more current data from September 2026, unemployment rates remained relatively stable in Canada and the United States, sitting at 6.5% and 4.2% respectively.
Written by urgent.news from Hellenic Shipping News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
