The OECD Employment Outlook 2013 looks at labour markets in the wake of the crisis. It also includes chapters on employment protection legislation; benefit systems, employment and training programmes and re-employment earnings and skills afer job loss.

1. OECD EMPLOYMENT OUTLOOK 2013
Key indicators

2. 2
Labour market prospects remain grim in the Euro area
but some improvement in the United States
Unemployment rates, 2007 Q4-2014 Q4
Shaded area refers to the OECD May 2013 economic projections.
Source: OECD calculations based on the OECD Economic Outlook Database.
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
OECD
Euro area
United States
Japan

3. 3
Large country divergence within the Euro area
Unemployment rates, 2007 Q4-2014 Q4
Shaded area refers to the OECD May 2013 economic projections.
Source: OECD calculations based on the OECD Economic Outlook Database.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Portugal
Greece
France
Germany
Spain
Italy

4. 4
New record highs in unemployment
have been reached in several countries
Unemployment rates before the crisis, at its peak and in Q1 2013a,b,c
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
%
Pre-crisis trough Peak Q1 2013
Note: Countries are shown in ascending order by the unemployment rate at its peak.
*: Information on data for Israel: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888932315602.
a) For Israel, the series have been chained to take into account the break in series in 2012.
b) Trough (peak) dates are defined as the start of the longest spell of consecutive increase (decrease) of the quarterly unemployment rates since Q4 2007.
c) Q2 2013 for Canada and the United States.
Source: OECD calculations based on the OECD Short-Term Indicators Database (Cut-off date: 12 July 2013).

5. 5
Youth have been hit particularly hard by the crisis and
youth unemployment remains high in most countries
Youth unemployment rates December 2007-May 2013a,b
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
%
December 2007 May 2013
Note: Countries are shown by ascending order of the youth unemployment rate in May 2013.
*: Information on data for Israel: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888932315602.
a) For Israel, the series have been chained to take into account the break in the LFS series of the year 2012.
b) March 2013 for Greece, Slovenia, Turkey and the United Kingdom; April 2013 for Chile, Estonia, Hungary, Korea and Norway; June 2013 for Canada and
the United States; Q1 2013 for New Zealand and Switzerland.
c) Source: OECD calculations based on the OECD Short-Term Indicators Database (Cut-off date: 12 July 2013).

6. 6
The long-term unemployed now account for
one in three unemployed persons in the OECD area
Percentage of unemployment, Q4 2007 and Q1 2013a,b
Note: Countries are shown by ascending order of the incidence of long-term unemployment in Q1 2013. Long-term unemployment refers to unemployment of 12
months or more
*: Information on data for Israel: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888932315602.
a) Data are not seasonally adjusted but smoothed using three-quarter moving averages. OECD is the weighted average of 32 OECD countries excluding Chile
and Korea. For Israel and Portugal, the series have been chained to take into account the breaks in the LFS series of the years 2012 and 2011, respectively
b) Q4 2011 for Israel; Q4 2012 for the European Union, the euro area, France and Switzerland.
Source: OECD calculations based on the national labour force surveys.(Cut-off date: 12 July 2013).
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
%
Q4 2007 Q1 2013

7. 7
Recent reforms of Employment Protection Legislation
show evidence of cross-country convergence
Protection of permanent workers against individual and collective dismissals, 2008 and 2013
* Aggregate of the 21 OECD countries of the European Union.
Source: OECD Employment Protection Database, 2013 update.
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
2013 2008
Scale 0-6
OECD average: 2.29

8. 8
Generally no further deregulation of temporary contracts
Regulation on temporary forms of employment, 2013
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
2013 2008
Scale 0-6
* Aggregate of the 21 OECD countries of the European Union.
Source: OECD Employment Protection Database, 2013 update.
OECD average: 2.08

9. 9
OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
www.oecd.org/els
OECD Employment Outlook
www.oecd.org/employment/outlook
OECD Employment database
www.oecd.org/employment/database
@OECD_Social
For further information