Major Programme 120. Statistics

Summary of 1998-99 proposals and comparison with previous biennium (including funds from other sources)

120.1. In recent years, the labour market in many member States has changed considerably, as witnessed by the increased diversity of types of employment status (including the growing proportion of self-employment), volatile levels of unemployment, the rise in informal sector employment, not just in the developing countries but also in many industrialized countries, and more in-work poverty. The last decade has also seen heightened international concern over the problem of child labour. These changes have led to an increased need for more sophisticated data to monitor and understand the underlying causes and consequences of these labour market trends. In addition, the rising cost of statistical surveys in a context of greater pressure on public finances has led to the need for cheaper and more accurate sources of data, such as administrative records and combinations of various data sources. These developments represent a major challenge to central statistical agencies, as well as to Ministries of Labour and other government units dealing with labour, which are finding it increasingly difficult to provide the necessary statistical basis for the formulation and monitoring of employment policy. Member States look to the ILO for guidance in these various fields.

120.2. The objectives of this major programme are: a greater understanding by constituents of developments in labour markets and the conditions of work and life of workers through the provision of relevant information at the national and international levels; and the strengthening of the capacity of national organizations responsible for labour statistics to produce appropriate data. These objectives will be achieved through: the development of international statistical standards, on the basis of the experience and requirements of the different member States; the provision of advice to member States, in the form of expert consultancies, training and manuals, to assist them in the application of these standards; and the dissemination of key labour statistics and methodological information through publications, computer-readable data sets and an on-line information system. The International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) is the forum through which international standards are set in the field of labour statistics. It has generally met every five years since 1923, the last one being held in 1993. The Sixteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) will be held in 1998. The Bureau of Statistics will also be involved in follow-up work to the World Summit for Social Development, which called on the ILO to play an active role in improving national statistical capacities in two specific areas, namely: the expansion of productive employment and the reduction of unemployment; and the eradication of poverty. Moreover, as a follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women, the Bureau of Statistics will ensure that particular attention is given to gender issues in all its activities.

120.3. The resources for this major programme show a reduction of some $307,000 in real terms, reflecting economies in staff costs amounting to 0/03 Professional work-years and 0/10 General Service work-years, and a net reduction in other costs amounting to some $169,000.

Development of labour statistics

120.4. The objectives of this subprogramme are: the development of guidelines on labour statistics, in particular those required under the Labour Statistics Convention, 1985 (No.160); and the strengthening of the capacity of national statistical systems in member States to apply them. In collaboration with the multidisciplinary advisory teams, member States will continue to be provided with support in the form of workshops, seminars and advisory services to assist in the implementation of international standards and in the production of useful, reliable and relevant labour statistics. Building on the experience acquired in recent biennia in the provision of training courses, the Bureau’s training programme will be further developed. Training in labour statistics will also be provided in collaboration with the Turin Centre, the Regional Offices, other United Nations organizations and international centres, particularly in relation to the 2000 World Population and Housing Censuses. The Office’s capacity to provide assistance of this nature will be strengthened through the launching of new research work on the statistical use of labour-related administrative records and on statistics of working time and productivity. The developmental work carried out in previous biennia under the interdepartmental projects on the Elimination of child labour and on the Informal sector will be consolidated into technical manuals as guidance for national statistical systems.

120.5. The Labour Statistics Convention (No.160) and Recommendation (No.170), 1985, provide the basic framework within which member States can progressively develop their programmes of labour statistics, in accordance with their economic and social circumstances and resources, and also provide for the promotion of the international comparability of labour statistics. Technical support will continue to be provided for the application of these instruments and the earlier Convention concerning Statistics of Wages and Hours of Work, 1938 (No.63).

Sixteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians

120.6. Taking account of the work of previous biennia and the additional preparatory work to be conducted in the first part of 1998, it would be appropriate to hold the Sixteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) in the third quarter of 1998. The proposals for its agenda, which will be determined by the Governing Body, will include the adoption of new statistical standards in the form of resolutions on the measurement of underemployment, the measurement of income from employment and statistics of occupational injuries. A number of topics identified by the Fifteenth ICLS (1993) will also be discussed, including: the application of the International Classification of Status in Employment adopted by the Fifteenth ICLS; the informal sector data collection practices of member States, following the adoption of the international standards on this topic by the Fifteenth ICLS; and the methodology used for the fourth edition of the ILO estimates and projections of the economically active population, 1950-2010. Travel expenses and subsistence allowances (ten calendar days in Geneva) will be paid for six experts nominated by the Employers’ group of the Governing Body and six nominated by the Workers’ group ($81,040).

Underemployment

120.7. Based on the work undertaken in the previous biennia and the conclusions of the Meeting of Experts on Labour Statistics (October 1997), a report and a draft resolution will be prepared on the concept and measurement of underemployment. Following the Sixteenth ICLS, technical assistance will be provided, training activities carried out and regional and international meetings organized to promote the application of the new guidelines.

Income from employment

120.8. The Fifteenth ICLS (1993) supported the Bureau’s proposal for the development of statistics on income from employment. It also recommended that existing guidelines on wages statistics should be reviewed and expanded in order to improve the measurement of wages, and that these issues should be submitted to a meeting of experts. Taking account of the conclusions of this meeting, which is to be held in October 1997, a report will be prepared containing a draft for a new resolution on the measurement of income from employment, including wages and earnings from self-employment, for consideration by the Sixteenth ICLS. Following the Conference, activities to promote the application of the new guidelines will include preparatory work on a technical manual dealing with such aspects as the methodology of data collection, data analysis and presentation.

Occupational injuries

120.9. Up-to-date and relevant guidelines on statistics of occupational injuries are essential to assist countries in compiling the data needed to develop meaningful accident prevention programmes and monitor progress in the field of safety and health at work. The review of the existing statistical guidelines will be continued, taking into account the ILO Code of Practice on the Recording and Notification of Occupational Accidents and Diseases (1994), relevant national practices and the work carried out by the European Union in this field. Two important areas particularly in need of updating and extension are the methods used for data collection and the classification schemes used for the recording of occupational accidents and the compilation and publication of statistics. A report covering these areas will be prepared for consideration by a meeting of experts.

Meeting of Experts on Labour Statistics: Occupational Injuries

120.10. A tripartite meeting of experts (with the participation of WHO specialists) will be convened in early 1998 to examine the report on statistics of occupational injuries, which will contain draft proposals for new standards. The Meeting will be held in Geneva for five calendar days ($76,270) and will be attended by six experts from each group nominated by the Governing Body. Based on the conclusions of the Meeting, a report and a new draft resolution will be prepared on statistics of occupational injuries for consideration by the Sixteenth ICLS. Following the Sixteenth ICLS, activities in this field will include the development of practical guidance for the application of the new statistical standards, including a technical manual on the subject.

Statistical use of administrative records

120.11. Labour-related administrative records, such as the records of employment offices, social security schemes and labour inspectorates, can provide a relatively cost-effective source of statistics, provided that their scope is clearly identified, the administrative registration process satisfies the necessary data quality requirements and the relevant laws or rules permit their use for statistical purposes. In collaboration with programme 80.3 (Labour administration), research will be carried out to examine the direct use of these records for statistical purposes. The key issues involved will be analysed and methods identified by which these records can be used to establish or improve labour statistics. The research will cover most of the basic topics described in Convention No.160, including employment, unemployment, vacancies, income from employment (including wages), hours of work, occupational injuries and diseases, strikes and lockouts, and the international migration of workers. A working paper will be prepared as a first step towards the production of a technical manual to provide guidance in these areas to Ministries of Labour, central statistical offices and other competent bodies.

Working time and productivity

120.12. Data on the volume of work and labour inputs can be used to measure labour productivity, which relates the outputs produced to the labour inputs used. A study on working time and the measurement of labour productivity will analyse the conceptual and practical problems involved and review existing national definitions and measurement methods. The findings of this study will be used for the preparation of a report, which will be discussed by a meeting of experts at a later date with a view to the development of draft international recommendations on the measurement of labour productivity for adoption by a future ICLS. The possibility will also be examined of collecting statistics on components of working time, such as overtime and annual hours of work.

Child labour

120.13. The methodologies developed as part of the 1992-93 interdepartmental project on the Elimination of child labour for the collection of information on working children will be further tested in order to improve their effectiveness. The findings will provide a basis for the further revision of the detailed technical guidelines drafted during the biennium 1996-97, which will then be published as an ILO manual on the concepts and methods of child labour surveys. Regional and subregional technical workshops and seminars will be organized to train statisticians from national statistical offices and child labour specialists from Labour Ministries in the use of these techniques. Assistance will also be provided to member States for the adaptation and implementation of the survey methodology in their own countries.

Informal sector

120.14. As a follow-up to the 1994-95 interdepartmental project on the informal sector, technical assistance and training will continue to be provided to member States on the development of statistics of the informal sector. Following the request made by the Fifteenth ICLS in its resolution concerning statistics of employment in the informal sector, a report will be submitted to the Sixteenth ICLS on the experience gained in the design and implementation of informal sector surveys. This will provide the basis for the preparation of a manual containing technical guidelines on the concepts and methods of informal sector data collection.

Data collection and dissemination

120.15. The collection, analysis and dissemination of information on a wide range of labour issues represents one of the major tasks of the Bureau of Statistics. Data are collected either directly from national statistical authorities or from their official publications and stored in a number of numerical or textual databases. Information is provided to a wide range of users, both within and outside the ILO, through publications and articles, in machine-readable form (on diskette or tape) and online at the International Computing Centre. Following the work carried out during the biennium 1996-97 to modernize the Bureau’s databases, emphasis will be placed in 1998-99 on the modernization of its data dissemination capacities through the use of recent developments in information technology. Selected yearly time series from the LABORSTA database and the related textual metadata (footnotes, methodological and source information) will be made available through the Internet and CD-ROMs. The Bureau will continue to monitor the application of the international standard classifications of occupations and status in employment, produce press releases, analytical and methodological articles and reports, contribute to other Office reports and participate in inter-agency and other international statistical meetings. In addition, it will cooperate with programme 90.2 (Occupational safety and health) in the establishment of networking arrangements for the collection and dissemination of statistics on occupational injuries in hazardous occupations.

120.16. The Bureau’s major statistical publications, the Yearbook of Labour Statistics, the quarterly Bulletin of Labour Statistics and its Supplements, and Statistics on occupational wages and hours of work and on food prices: October Inquiry results, are prepared using the main database (LABORSTA). The other databases are on subjects that are not covered by regular publications, but which either provide a basis for periodic publications, such as Household income and expenditure statistics and Economically active population, 1950-2010, or are being considered for integration into the regular data collection and dissemination programme. Methodological descriptions of the series appearing in the Yearbook and Bulletin will be published in a new or revised volume in the Sources and methods: Labour statistics series, one of which will be issued each year as a companion volume to the Yearbook. In addition, an occasional series of publications will be produced on key labour issues using information from existing databases.

Comparable labour market data

120.17. As a follow-up to the World Summit for Social Development, the Bureau will upgrade its data and indicators on employment, unemployment, underemployment and earnings, including insofar as possible work situations outside formal markets. In particular, a model will be developed for the production of world and regional estimates of employment and unemployment. The programme of ILO-comparable annual employment and unemployment estimates in 26 countries will be transformed into a wider programme on ILO-comparable unemployment rates and employment/population ratios by sex and, where appropriate, by formal or informal sector. World estimates and projections of the economically active population will also be updated on a regular basis in preparation for the publication of the next (fifth) edition of Economically active population.

Reconciliation of data

120.18. There are generally several data sources for each topic covered by labour statistics. The three main sources of labour statistics are household surveys, establishment surveys and administrative records. When statistics are available from more than one source, it is a sound practice to compare the resulting data and endeavour to account for any differences. The “reconciliation” of data from different sources is an important element in assessing the coverage and quality of the data and obtaining an improved estimate of the target phenomenon. Drawing on the work on labour accounting carried out in the biennium 1996-97, specifications will be developed for harmonized concepts and methods of reconciliation and will be illustrated by data on employment, unemployment, hours of work and wages in selected countries.

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