GENEVA (ILO news) – The 18th International Conference of Labour Statisticians ended with the adoption of new international statistical standards on child labour and working time as well as recommendations for further work on for the measurement of decent work, labour underutilization and volunteer work.
Among others, the 250 Conference participants from more than 120 countries supported a resolution calling for a set of “labour underutilization indicators” that are complementary to the traditional indicator of unemployment and more fully reflect today’s reality in the world of work, including labour slack, low earnings and skills mismatch.
In the past few decades, many economies worldwide have found the unemployment rate inadequate to describe the extent to which people are suffering from a lack of work. Using a country example presented to the Conference, “lack of work” in that country would be assessed at 5.0 % using its unemployment rate, whilst this assessment would increase to 46.3 % using a total labour underutilization rate.
Participants concluded that it is important for these new rates to be taken as seriously as the unemployment rate and used together with the unemployment rate, in assessing the performance of their labour markets.
In recognition of the importance of the work of volunteers, the Conference also suggested new methods to measure more completely their importance for the economy and society as a whole.
The Conference also adopted standards on working time and child labour statistics, which are key components of assessing decent work. The new standards provide comprehensive international guidelines on substantive methods to measure each topic and their application in countries at different levels of development.
“By adopting the new standards and recommendations for future work, the world community of labour statisticians has contributed to the promotion of the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda by providing the tools for a better measurement of all aspects of decent work”, says Sylvester Young, director of the ILO Bureau of Statistics.
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