OECD labour markets remain tight, with total employment higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic and the OECD unemployment rate close to its lowest level since at least 2001. Jobs growth has slowed, however, and real wages have recovered to pre-2020 levels in only 19 of the 35 OECD countries with available data, despite some catching up in the past quarters. Gender employment participation gaps are narrowing, with female employment up by about 5% in May this year from December...

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Blog post by By Ursel Baumann, Annalisa Ferrando, Dimitris Georgarakos, Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Judit Rariga and Timo Reinelt | Firms’ inflation expectations are key for monetary policy makers. The ECB Blog presents new survey data on these expectations, evidence on what influences them, how they change when new information becomes available, and if they matter for the plans and choices firms make. Setting prices, negotiating wages, deciding how much to invest or how many workers to employ - these are all...

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Canada is joining the growing group of non-EU countries who have associated to the EU's research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe, and will work jointly on large-scale projects tackling our biggest challenges. Today, Iliana Ivanova, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, and Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, are signing the agreement that gives Canadian researchers and organisations the opportunity to participate in the programme on equal terms with their EU counterparts. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian...

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The innovation performance of the European Union continues to improve at a steady pace, reaching a 10% increase since 2017 and a growth of 0.5% between 2023 and 2024. According to the 2024 edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) published today, most EU Member States have boosted their innovation performance, but the increase varies strongly from one to another. Key findings Between 2023 and 2024, the national innovation performance has increased for 15 Member States, while it has declined for another group of 11. Croatia remained stable. Compared to the...

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Keynote speech by Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, at the National Conference of Statistics on official statistics at the time of artificial intelligence It is a pleasure to be here today to discuss the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) from a central bank’s perspective. The world is witnessing extraordinary advances in the field of AI. We are moving from analytical AI models designed to perform specific tasks to generative AI models capable of creating human-like content. The...

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