Indicator 28: Employment Rates

G-20 Countries Included: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

In the United States and all other G-20 countries reporting data in 2011, higher employment rates were associated with higher levels of educational attainment.

This indicator examines the employment rate of 25- to 64-year-olds (i.e., adults of typical working age). High employment rates in the working age population can be one aspect of a strong economy, but may also reflect social and economic policies. This indicator examines employment rates among the working age population by different levels of education for men and women.

In the United States and all other G-20 countries reporting data in 2011, higher employment rates were associated with higher levels of educational attainment (figure 28-1). For example, employment rates for 25- to 64-year-olds with academic higher education were 76 percent or higher in all reporting G-20 countries, compared with employment rates of 67 percent or below for 25- to 64-year-olds with lower secondary education or below as their highest level of education. Germany had the highest employment rate (88 percent) for working age adults with academic higher education; in the United States, the employment rate for this group was 81 percent.

In every reporting G-20 country, employment rates rose with each successively higher education level, but the specific advantage of higher levels of education varied by country. The advantage of upper secondary education over lower secondary education or below ranged from 3 percentage points in Brazil to over 20 percentage points in Germany, Italy, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom. In these latter four countries as well as four others (Australia, Canada, France, and the United States), this advantage was greater than that of academic higher education over upper secondary education. In the United States, the difference in the employment rate between 25- to 64-year-olds with upper secondary education and those with lower secondary education or below was 16 percentage points.

The advantage of academic higher education over upper secondary education ranged from 5 percentage points in Australia and the United Kingdom to 15 percentage points in Brazil. In Brazil, the Republic of Korea, and Turkey, this advantage was greater than that of upper secondary education over lower secondary education or below. In the United States, the difference in the employment rate between 25- to 64-year-olds with academic higher education and those with upper secondary education was 14 percentage points.

Examining differences in employment rates among 25- to 64-year-olds by sex shows that, in all reporting G-20 countries, men at all education levels had higher employment rates than women with comparable education (figure 28-2). For example, men who had completed academic higher education had employment rates of 84 percent (in Turkey) to 92 percent (in Brazil and Japan), whereas women with the same level of education had employment rates of 62 percent (in the Republic of Korea) to 84 percent (in Germany).

For men who had completed upper secondary education, employ-ment rates ranged from 72 percent (in the United States) to 89 percent (in Australia and Brazil); for women, they ranged from 30 percent (in Turkey) to 73 percent (in Germany and the United Kingdom). For men who had completed lower secondary education or below, employment rates ranged from 57 percent (in the Russian Federation) to 87 percent (in Mexico); for women, they ranged from 26 percent (in Turkey) to 57 percent (in the Republic of Korea).

In five countries (Brazil, Japan, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, and Turkey), a higher percentage of men who had completed any education level were employed than were women who had completed academic higher education.¹²

Moreover, for men, the association between having only lower secondary education or below and employment rates was weaker than it was for women in all countries except Japan and the Republic of Korea. Differences between 25- to 64-year-olds with academic higher education and those with lower secondary education or below were 30 percentage points or more among women in 9 countries (including the United States), whereas they were no more than 25 percentage points in any country among men (except the Russian Federation, where the difference was 34 percentage points).
Employment rates for men in all but two G-20 countries (the Republic of Korea and the United States) also were less likely than those for women to be affected by the lack of academic higher education than by the lack of upper secondary education. This was especially true in Turkey, where the gap between 25- to 64-year-olds at these two levels of education was 2 percentage points among men and 34 percentage points among women. In the United States, the advantage of academic higher education over upper secondary education was 14 percentage points for both men and women.

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Definitions and Methodologie

The employment rate of adults at a particular level of educational attainment is calculated as the number of individuals with that level of educational attainment who are employed divided by the total number of individuals with the same level of educational attainment. This indicator examines the employment rate of adults ages 25 to 64.

As shown in the accompanying figures,education levels are define according to the 1997 International Standard Classificationof Education (ISCED97). For more information on the ISCED97 levels, see appendix A. Individuals whose highest level of education is academic higher education have completed at least a first university degree program, which prepares students for advanced research and highly skilled professions. First university degree programs vary in duration in different countries in different programs of study. In the United States, first university degree programs include bachelor's degree programs, but not associate's degree programs.

Percentage-point differences presented in the text were com-puted from unrounded numbers; therefore, they may differ from computations made using the rounded whole numbers that appear in the figures.

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¹² In Japan, data for preprimary, primary, and lower secondary education (for both men and women) are included in the data for upper secondary education.