PARIS, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The average rate of employment in the 36-nation Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) slightly increased between January and March this year, figures released on Tuesday by the Paris-based organization showed.
A 0.2 percent rise in female employment drove the total rate up by 0.1 percent to 68.7 percent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2019 from the last quarter of 2018.
In the eurozone, the employment rate increased by 2 percentage points to 67.8 percent. The star performers were Austria, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic and Spain.
Outside the single-currency bloc, the employment rate rose in Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.
In its report, the OECD noted that the increase in the youth employment rate (people aged between 15 and 24 years) "outperformed all other age groups, for the OECD as a whole."
However, the youth employment rate remained significantly below other age groups at 42.2 percent.
