Statistics on occupational wages and hours of work and on food prices
This publication presents the latest results of the ILO October Inquiry, a worldwide survey of wages and hours of work relating to 159 occupations in 49 industry groups and of retail prices of 93 food items, conducted with reference to the month of October each year. It was initiated in 1924 to give effect to a resolution of the First International Conference of Labour Statisticians (1923), for the ILO to take over a survey conducted earlier by the British Ministry of Labour, and has been conducted regularly ever since. The survey originally collected statistics on wages and food prices in 16 capitals with the aim of comparing the levels of real wages. It has been revised several times since then, the last major revision and expansion of the Inquiry was introduced in October 1985. It is currently in the process of updating. It is published as a special annual issue of the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.
The occupations and industry groups covered comprise, as far as possible, those which are important in terms of the number of persons employed in them, those which fall within the scope of the ILO Industrial Committees and similar bodies and those which are important in terms of employment of certain types of workers (such as women, salaried employees and so on). The food items covered are, to the extent possible, representative of the dietary habits countries throughout the world.