Objectives of the workshop

The workshop raises awareness of policymakers and other users of labour statistics regarding new concepts and definitions of labour statistics. It contributes to better understanding and use of labour statistics including international comparison for the purposes of policymaking.

Background and rationale

In 2019, the International Labour Organization (ILO) is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The Centenary is an opportunity to celebrate the ILO’s achievements in the past and reflect about the future. Over the past 100 years, the world of work has evolved in a considerable manner. New jobs have emerged as technologies advance while some occupations have disappeared. Even where occupation titles remain the same, the way we perform these occupations have changed over time. In addition, new forms of work and employment relationships (e.g. platform workers, agency workers) have come into existence.

As the world of work evolve, labour statistics is required to adapt to the changes so it provides useful labour market information for policymakers, social partners and workers. The International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) meets roughly every five years to make recommendations on selected topics of labour statistics in the form of resolutions and guidelines, which are then approved by the Governing Body of the ILO before becoming part of the set of international standards on labour statistics. These standards usually relate to concepts, definitions, classifications and other methodological procedures which are agreed as representing ‘best practice’ in the respective areas, and which, when used by national producers, will increase the likelihood of having internationally comparable labour statistics as well as comparability across time within a country.

Reflecting the changes in the world of work, ICLS recommended important changes to labour statistics including: international classification of status in employment (20th ICLS in 2018); statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization (19th ICLS in 2013); and statistical definition of informal employment (17th ICLS in 2008). Since labour statistics provides an evidence basis for socio-economic policymaking, it is critical that labour statistics is well understood by users. Given the important changes that took place in labour statistics in the recent years, the ILO and the Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik, BPS) jointly propose a technical workshop on the recent changes to labour statistics.