Labour market information in South Eastern European countries
by Sandrine Cazes
Senior Specialist, Employment and Labour Market Policies
Reliable, relevant and timely data on labour market conditions are vital for making appropriate labour market policies, monitoring labour market developments, and evaluating labour market reforms at all institutional levels. While the statistical systems of EU accession countries have in general broadly reached EUROSTAT standard, in the Stability Pact countries of South Eastern Europe (SEE), reliable and updated labour statistics are not always available.
The ILO Sub-Regional Office in Budapest is pursuing a program of technical cooperation with its constituencies in this field. Proposals have been developed together with the employment sector and the ILO’s bureau of statistics to promote sustainable statistical capacity as a basis for effective development policies, especially in countries having a high percentage of poor people. While covering all Stability Pact countries in SEE, the project devotes particular attention to the poorest countries of the sub-region involved in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Moldova, and Serbia and Montenegro). The principal objective of this process is to enhance the effective use and dissemination of labour market information in order to support policy makers, analysts and researchers in the formulation, analysis, design and evaluation of labour market policies, as well as monitoring PRSP objectives in the sub-region. The programme includes various types of activities, such as the development of appropriate sets of labour market indicators, the provision of technical guidance through a sub-regional training workshop, and the promotion of local tools of dissemination, such as website modules, press packages, Bulletin or newsletters that enable users to download and comment on indicators.
The sub-regional training workshop on labour market information was held in the Hotel Radisson SAS-Beke in Budapest on 22–24 September 2003. It was designed to bring together experts in the field of labour statistics from Statistical Offices, Ministries of Labour, and other users – including representatives of the social partners (at the appropriate level – i.e. national, republican or entity). Participants from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro and Kosovo attended the workshop. Items for discussion included:
- initiatives to improve national labour market information systems, in particular regarding coordination and cooperation between the various institutions involved in producing, assembling, disseminating and analyzing labour market information;
- enhancing harmonization and comparability with international guidelines and regional practices;
- providing appropriate products or tools and technical expertise on labour market information systems; and
- raising awareness of the importance of labour market indicators as a prerequisite to the formulation, implementation and monitoring of effective employment policies and poverty reduction strategies.
The main outcomes from the exchanges and group work were proposals and recommendations made for the next steps of the project. Although producers and users of statistics had different types of requests, all groups acknowledged the need for a better exchange of information between them. They also mentioned the need for training to become independent (“Don't give us fish, teach us to fish”). Several indicators were identified as being of key importance in the region – the informal economy; unemployment by age, gender and skills; long-term unemployment; information on employers’ needs; the number of recipients of social benefits, and so on.
Follow-up activities on this project will concentrate on the use and dissemination of the labour market information. This will include the promotion of local tools of dissemination, such as country flyers providing key information on the labour market features and trends. In addition, a sub-regional website is a possibly to provide labour market information, as well as to share and exchange information.
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