The aggregate rate hides large differences by gender: while the male employment rate is among the highest in the OECD, the female rate is only around average. Another factor increasing total employment is the high share of men who work after the age of 64 (see below). Nevertheless, at 5.1% in 2009 and with an annual low of 3.9% and high of 5.4% over the past decade,9 the LFS unemployment rate in Japan is still within the lowest third of rates in a ranking of OECD countries and has remained, with few exceptions, below the rate for die United States. In the mid-2000s, the average number of unemployment benefit recipients (600 to 700 thousand people) was slightly less than a quarter of LFS unemployment, but in 2009 it rose rapidly to around 1 million, and by end-2009 remained significantly above its 2008 level. In 2008, almost half of those currently unemployed had been out of work for over six months, and one-third for over a year. The share of part-time employment in total employment, 20.3% in 2009, is high by OECD standards, with one in three women and one in ten men usually working less than 30 hours per week in their main job.