Investing in People

• Author: Dirk Van Damme, Corinne Heckmann, and Elisabeth Villoutreix
• Position: Prepared by , , and . Text and charts are based on Education at a Glance 2012: OECD Indicators, publhed by the OECD in September 2012. (Unless indicated otherwise, data are for 2010.) The report provides data on the structure, finances, and performance of the education systems in the OECD's 34 member countries plus Argentina, Brazil, China, ...

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The recent economic crisis reinforced the importance of a good education. People with more education were in general better able to get and keep jobs, even during the global financial crisis, according to a new study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

For example, between 2008 and 2010, unemployment rates in OECD countries for people with only a high school education increased from 4.9 percent to 7.6 percent. By contrast, rates for people with a college education were much lower, rising from 3.3 percent to 4.7 percent during the same period.

The Education at a Glance report reveals stark differences between countries when it comes...