The increasing interdependence of countries and the spread of global and regional cooperation arrangements have created an enormous demand, at the international, regional and national levels, for international data on the labour force, employment and unemployment for research and enterprise decision-making. While the need for such international datasets existed in the past, the rigour demanded now is stricter than before and the scope of the requirements considerably wider.
To make access to this data easier, the ILO Library teamed up with the Policy Integration Department to combine all links to national labour force surveys into one centralized web site ( www.ilo.org/dyn/lfsurvey/lfsurvey.home) that covers surveys throughout the world. In addition, the site can facilitate international comparisons of employment and unemployment statistics at a level of detail not always available in published sources.
Labour force surveys are a specialized form of sample surveys of households designed to obtain current and comprehensive data on the employed, the unemployed and, in certain cases, the underemployed. The data is classified by age, sex, marital status, education level and other characteristics. Labour force surveys are being conducted, in one form or another, in more than 100 countries, many on a regular basis.
While ILO standards on statistics of the economically active population, employment, unemployment and underemployment ( Note 1) do not refer to a specific data source and are meant, in principle, to be applicable to various types of data source, in practice they are better suited to data collection through labour force surveys. With an appropriate sample design, labour force surveys can cover virtually the entire population of a country, all branches of economic activity, all sectors of the economy and all categories of workers, such as the self-employed and unpaid family workers. By virtue of the survey questionnaire and interviewing techniques, concepts, definitions and subject, details can be adapted to specific data needs.
National labour force surveys have evolved to a uniform design, particularly with respect to concepts and definitions and associated survey instruments such as questionnaires and editing procedures ( Note 2). They are therefore better suited for international comparisons than other sources of data on employment and unemployment.
The new ILO site currently has links to data from 124 countries and territories, of which more than 70 countries have published data for 2004 or 2005. The site is updated monthly and can be searched in English, French and Spanish. Most countries provide data only in a printable form; however, some countries' data can be downloaded into a spreadsheet or database.
Note 1
- Resolution concerning
statistics of the economically active population,
employment, unemployment and underemployment, adopted by
the International Conference of Labour Statisticians,
ILO, Geneva, October 1982.
Note 2 - "The convergence of national labour force surveys," by Farhad Mehran, Invited Paper, Theme No. 22, Proceedings of the Fiftieth Session of the International Statistical Institute, Beijing, August 1995.