OECD calls for action to protect workers amid weak wage growth

Employment across developed countries has almost recovered to pre-crisis levels but weak wage growth has blighted living standards, a respected thinktank has said, as it called for more government action to boost productivity and protect workers from workplace automation.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Thursday the employment rate across its 34 member countries would have recouped all its losses from the recession by 2017 – a decade after the onset of the crisis. But its 2016 employment outlook said family finances were being squeezed by slow wage growth, with UK workers among the worst affected.

A slowdown in global growth and the UK’s recent vote to leave the EU are casting further shadows over the outlook for wages for workers in Britain, the Paris-based group said.

Across the OECD countries, the group noted a combination of low-quality jobs and a high level of labour market inequality. Many of the workers who lost their jobs during the recession were now back in work, but wage growth remained subdued and job stress was common, the report said.

Highlighting weak growth in productivity – a measure of output produced per hour worked – and low job security for many workers, the OECD reiterated recent pleas for governments to help with more structural reforms and fiscal policy.

“The job of healing the employment market is only half done: back at work, but out of pocket,” said Angel Gurría, the OECD secretary general, launching the annual jobs report in Paris. “Comprehensive and ambitious policy action is needed to kickstart labour productivity growth, raise wages, and reduce rising job market inequalities.”