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 see below nevertheless at in and with an annual low of and high of over the past decade 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 s the average number of unemployment benefit recipients to thousand people was slightly less than a quarter of lfs unemployment but in it rose rapidly to around million and by end remained significantly above its level in almost half of those currently unemployed had been out of work for over six months and onethird for over a year the share of parttime employment in total employment in is high by oecd standards with one in three women and one in ten men usually working less than hours per week in their main job