International developments in labour market statistics since the UN Review

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International developments in labour market
statistics since the UN Review
Catherine Barham Labour Market Division Office
for National Statistics
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Outline

• Overview of UN Review of Labour Statistics
• Recommendations and responses
• International Conference of Labour Statisticians
  (ICLS)
• Observations and conclusions

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Overview of UN Review

• ONS asked to carry out Programme Review of labour
  statistics by UNSC in Feb 07
• Review presented to UN Statistical Commission in
  New York on the 6th Feb 2008.
• Item on the agenda of the ICLS in November 2008
• Follow-up at UNSC meeting 2009

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Brief on content of Review

• What is currently being done and who are the key
  players
• How well is the current system working
• Is what is being done sufficiently in line with
  the demand for this type of statistics or are
  there gaps
• What are the priority areas for the future

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Structure

• Indicators of labour statistics
• Roles of international agencies involved in
  labour statistics
• Survey of UN member countries
• Labour market frameworks
• Recommendations

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1. Indicators of international LMS

• Main international agencies involved in compiling
  labour stats are ILO, OECD and Eurostat.
• Issues of overlap, lack of coherence and
  comparability.
• KILM (ILO) most comprehensive but out of date and
  metadata incomplete.
• Internationally agreed definitions adhered to
  (ILO unemployment etc) but differing
  interpretations

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Cont..

• Huge progress made in harmonising concepts and
  definitions internationally, largely through work
  of the ILO
• Promoting input harmonisation key part of future
  work
• Plans to develop set of key labour statistics
  indicators common to OECD, ILO, Eurostat
• Also issues with collecting info in countries
  with less developed economies

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2. Roles of international agencies

• Compilation and dissemination activities
• Survey of UN member countries
• Concept of collect once, use many times
• Development work
• International standards expert groups to work
  on topical issues
• Speed up process of agreeing standards
• Technical assistance
• Statistical training integral part of statistical
  capacity building
• Review of current system

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3. Survey of UN member countries
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4. Labour Market Framework
Labour supply
Labour demand
Families/hhlds
People
Employers
Employed
Unemployed
Inactive
Vacancies
Jobs
Self-employed
Employees
Gvt schemes
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Suggested improvements

• Further development of the dynamic aspects
• Parallel framework for labour demand
• Extending the use of family and household
  statistics
• Developing the interactions with other areas

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5. Recommendations

• Overall, the Review listed 5 main
  recommendations
• Harmonisation of concepts and methods
• Co-ordinated system for providing technical
  assistance
• Improvements to the existing system of setting
  international standards
• Setting up of working groups to discuss 5
  priority areas for LS in future
• Developing an updated version of the conceptual
  labour statistics framework

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International Conference of Labour Statisticians
(ICLS)

• Held every 5 years at ILO headquarters, Geneva
• Aim for attendance by all ILO member countries
• 2 weeks long
• Aim is for working groups to meet during this
  period and draft a report before the end of the
  conference.

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Agenda 2008

• Statistical work of the ILO during the period
  2004-2008 (including UN Review recommendations)
• Updating of the International Standard
  Classification of Occupations (ISCO)
• Measuring and monitoring decent work
• Indicators of labour underutilization
• Measurement of volunteer work

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Cont..

• Future work of the ILO in labour statistics
  (2009-2013)
• Measurement of Working Time
• Measurement of Child Labour
• Employment and unemployment Revisiting the
  relevance and conceptual basis of the statistics.

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Challenges

• Employment and work
• Classification of employment based on principal
  that activity contributes to production of goods
  and services
• Ties employment stats firmly in economic sphere
• Fails to give due cognisance to work as a social
  activity that takes time, requires skills and
  contributes to welfare
• Notion of work in addition to employment

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Implications

• Re-examine current perspective in international
  standards that look at work from mainly an
  economic standpoint
• For social analysis, consider introducing a new
  concept of work statistics.
• Would extend beyond employment stats to include
  stats derived from unpaid non-market services.

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Links

• Link to UN Review from UN website
• http//unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/sc2008.htm
• Link to papers fro ICLS from ILO website
• http//ILO.org