Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

The “ALFS Summary tables” dataset is a subset of the Annual Labour Force Statistics database which presents annual labour force statistics and broad population series for 34 OECD member countries plus Brazil, Columbia and Russian Federation and 4 geographical areas (Major Seven, Euro area, European Union and OECD-Total). Data are presented in thousands of persons, in percentage or as indices with base year 2010=100. This dataset contains estimates from the OECD Secretariat for the latest years when countries did not provide data. These estimates are necessary to compile aggregated statistics for the geographical areas for a complete span of time. Since 2003, employment data by sector for the United States are compiled following the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS); therefore they are not strictly comparable with other countries’ data. Euro area and European Union data were extracted from Eurostat (LFS Series, Detailed annual survey results in New Cronos). Euro area refer to Euro area with 17 countries (geo = ea17). European Union refers to European Union with 27 countries (geo = eu27).

This dataset contains data on average annual wages per full-time and full-year equivalent employee in the total economy.  Average annual wages per full-time equivalent dependent employee are obtained by dividing the national-accounts-based total wage bill by the average number of employees in the total economy, which is then multiplied by the ratio of average usual weekly hours per full-time employee to average usually weekly hours for all employees.   Average wages are converted in USD PPPs using 2017 USD PPPs for private consumption and are deflated by a price deflator for private final consumption expenditures in 2017 prices.   Real compensation per employee (instead of real wages) are considered for Chile, Iceland, Mexico and New Zealand.

The balance of payments is a statistical statement that provides a systematic summary of economic transactions of an economy with the rest of the world, for a specific time period. The transactions are for the most part between residents and non-residents of the economy. A transaction is defined as an economic flow that reflects the creation, transformation, exchange, transfer, or extinction of economic value and involves changes in ownership, of goods or assets, the provision of services, labour or capital.  This dataset presents countries compiling balance of payments statistics in accordance with the 6th edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual published by the IMF (BPM6). Transactions include: the goods and services accounts, the primary income account (income account in BPM5), the secondary income account (transfers in BPM5), the capital account, and the financial account. Changes in BPM6 compared to BPM5 are often a consequence of a stricter application of the change of ownership principle in particular in the goods and services accounts. They relate to transactions on goods and services (merchanting, goods for processing, Insurance), income (investment income), and financial operations (direct investment) .

Statistical population: CLIs are calculated for 33 OECD countries (Iceland is not included), 6 non-member economies and 8 zone aggregates. A country CLI comprises a set of component series selected from a wide range of key short-term economic indicators.   CLIs, reference series data (see below) and standardised business and consumer confidence indicators are presented in various forms.   Recommended uses and limitations: The composite leading indicator is a times series, formed by aggregating a variety of component indicators which show a reasonably consistent relationship with a reference series (e.g. industrial production IIP up to March 2012 and since then the reference series is GDP) at turning points. The OECD CLI is designed to provide qualitative information on short-term economic movements, especially at the turning points, rather than quantitative measures. Therefore, the main message of CLI movements over time is the increase or decrease, rather than the amplitude of the changes. The OECD’s headline indicator is the amplitude adjusted CLI. In practice, turning points in the de-trended reference series have been found about 4 to 8 months (on average) after the signals of turning points had been detected in the headline CLI.

The OECD Economic Outlook analyses the major economic trends over the coming 2 years. It provides in-depth coverage of the main economic issues and the policy measures required to foster growth in each member country. Forthcoming developments in major non-OECD economies are also evaluated in detail. Each edition of the Outlook provides a unique resource to keep abreast of world economic developments. The OECD Economic Outlook database is a comprehensive and consistent macroeconomic database of the OECD economies, covering expenditures, foreign trade, output, labour markets, interest and exchange rates, balance of payments and government debt. For the non-OECD regions, foreign trade and current account series are available. Variables are defined in such a way that they are as homogenous as possible for the countries covered. Breaks in underlying series are corrected as far as possible. Sources for the historical data are publications of national statistical agencies and OECD data bases such as Quarterly National Accounts, Annual National Accounts, Labour Force Statistics and Main Economic Indicators. The cut-off date for information used in the compilation of the projections was June 1, 2023. The aggregation of world trade takes into account the projections made for the main non-OECD economies. Thus, besides OECD and the OECD euro area, the following regions are available: Dynamic Asian Economies (Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam); Oil Producers (Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan Bahrain, Brunei, Chad, Rep. of Congo, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Venezuela); with the remaining countries in a residual 'Rest of the World' group.

This dataset contains statistics on Consumer Price Indices - all items, for G20 countries and for the G20 as a whole.  The G20 area consists of the following economies: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, the United States, the African Union and the European Union. 

Productivity is a key driver of economic growth and changes in living standards. Labour productivity growth implies a higher level of output for unit of labour input (hours worked or persons employed). This can be achieved if more capital is used in production or through improved overall efficiency with which labour and capital are used together, i.e., higher multifactor productivity growth (MFP). Productivity is also a key driver of international competitiveness, e.g. as measured by Unit Labour Costs (ULC).   The OECD Productivity Database aims at providing users with the most comprehensive and the latest productivity estimates. The update cycle is on a rolling basis, i.e. each variable in the dataset is made publicly available as soon as it is updated in the sources databases. However, some time lag may arise which affects individual series and/or countries for two reasons: first, hours worked data from the OECD Employment Outlook are typically updated less frequently than the OECD Annual National Accounts Database; second, source data for capital services are typically available in annual national accounts later than source data for labour productivity and ULCs.   Note to users: The OECD Productivity Database accounts for the methodological changes in national accounts' statistics, such as the implementation of the System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA) and the implementation of the international industrial classification ISIC Rev.4. These changes had an impact on output, labour and capital measurement. For Chile, China, Colombia, India, Japan, Turkey and the Russian Federation the indicators are in line with the System of National Accounts 1993 (1993 SNA); for all other countries, the indicators presented are based on the 2008 SNA

The Key Economic Indicators (KEI) database contains monthly and quarterly statistics (and associated statistical methodological information) for all OECD member countries and for a selection of non-member countries on a wide variety of economic indicators, namely: quarterly national accounts, industrial production, composite leading indicators, business tendency and consumer opinion surveys, retail trade, consumer and producer prices, hourly earnings, employment/unemployment, interest rates, monetary aggregates, exchange rates, international trade and balance of payments.

The productivity and income estimates presented in this dataset are mainly based on GDP, population and employment data from the OECD Annual National Accounts. Hours worked are sourced from the OECD Annual National Accounts, the OECD Employment Outlook and national sources. The OECD Productivity Database aims at providing users with the most comprehensive and the latest productivity estimates. The update cycle is on a rolling basis, i.e. each variable in the dataset is made publicly available as soon as it is updated in the sources databases. However, timely data issues may arise and affect individual series and/or individual countries. In particular, annual hours worked estimates from the OECD Employment Outlook are typically updated less frequently (once a year, in the summer) than series of hours worked from the OECD Annual National Accounts.

The Financial Statistics dataset contains predominantly monthly statistics, and associated statistical methodological information, for the 36 OECD member countries and some selected other countries. The dataset itself contains financial statistics on 4 separate subjects: Monetary Aggregates, Interest Rates, Exchange Rates, and Share Prices. The data series presented within these subjects have been chosen as the most relevant financial statistics for which comparable data across countries is available. In all cases a lot of effort has been made to ensure that the data are internationally comparable across all countries presented and that all the subjects have good historical time-series’ data to aid with analysis. All data are available monthly, and are presented as either an index (where the year 2015 is the base year) or as a level depending on which measure is seen as the most appropriate and/or useful in the economic analysis context.

This dataset presents information using an "indicator" approach, focusing on cross-country comparisons. The aim is to make the accounts more accessible and informative, whilst taking the opportunity to present the conceptual underpinning  and comparability issues of each of the indicators presented. The range of indicators is set deliberately wide to reflect the richness of the national accounts dataset and to encourage users of economic statistics to refocus some of the spotlight that is often placed on GDP to other important economic indicators, which may better respond to their needs. Indeed many users themselves have been instrumental in this regard. The report of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission) is but one notable example. That is not to undermine the importance of GDP, which arguably remains the most important measure of total economic activity, but other measures may better reflect other aspects of the economy. For example, net national income may be a more appropriate measure of income available to citizens in countries with large outflows of property income, and household adjusted disposable income per capita may be a better indicator of the material well-being of citizens. But certainly from a data perspective more can and remains to be done. The Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission for example highlights the pressing need for the provision, by official statistics institutes, of more detailed information that better describes the distributional aspects of activity, especially income, and the need to build on the national accounts framework to address issues such as non-market services produced by households or leisure. It is hoped that by producing a publication such as this and thereby raising awareness, the momentum from this and other initiatives will be accelerated. The publication itself will pick up new indicators in the future as they become available at the OECD.

It presents the three approaches of the GDP: expenditure based, output based and income based. It has been prepared from statistics reported to the OECD by Member countries in their answers to annual national accounts questionnaire. This questionnaire is designed to collect internationally comparable data according to the 1993 SNA.

The OECD's quarterly national accounts (QNA) dataset presents data collected from all the OECD member countries and some other major economies on the basis of a standardised questionnaire. It contains a wide selection of generally seasonally adjusted quarterly series most widely used for economic analysis from 1960 or whenever available:

The Registered Unemployment and Job Vacancies dataset is a subset of the Short-Term Labour Situation database, which contains predominantly monthly statistics, and associated statistical methodological information, for the 34 OECD member countries and for selected other economies. There are basically two sources for unemployment statistics: labour force surveys and administrative data. Surveys are based on standard methodology and procedures used all over the world while administrative data are subject to national legislations which evolve through time. Consequently registered unemployment data are not comparable across countries. The relationship between survey and registered unemployment is not the same for all countries. Number of registered unemployed persons and registered unemployment rates are presented here because they are monthly and quickly available after their reference period. The job vacancies data provides estimates of the number of unfilled job vacancies across national economies. Series give an indication of the labour demand while the unemployment is linked with the labour supply.

The Short-Term Labour Market Statistics dataset contains predominantly quarterly labour statistics, and associated statistical methodological information, for the 35 OECD member countries and selected other economies. The Short-Term Labour Market Statistics dataset covers countries that compile labour statistics from sample household surveys on a monthly or quarterly basis. It is widely accepted that household surveys are the best source for labour market key statistics. In such surveys, information is collected from people living in households through a representative sample and the surveys are based on standard methodology and procedures used internationally. The subjects available cover: working age population by age; active and inactive labour force by age; employment by economic activity, by working time and by status; and, unemployment (including monthly harmonised unemployment) by age and by duration. Data is expressed in levels (thousands of persons) or rates (e.g. employment rate) where applicable.   Data are based on Labour Force Surveys and national information in this dataset is directly collected from the following sources:   ABS - Australian Bureau of Statistics (Australia) Statistics Canada (Canada) INE - Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (Chile) CBS – Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel) Statistics Bureau (Japan) Statistics Korea (Korea) INEGI - Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Geografía (Mexico) Statistics New Zealand (New Zealand) BLS - Bureau of Labor Statistics (the United States) Eurostat (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom).