QUICK GUIDE ON SOURCES AND USES OF LABOUR STATISTICS
QUICK GUIDEON SOURCES AND USESOF LABOUR STATISTICS85%216 %9%7125 %8070605040302010020112013
Copyright International Labour Organization 2017First published 2017Publications of the International Labour Office enjoy copyright under Protocol 2 of the Universal CopyrightConvention. Nevertheless, short excerpts from them may be reproduced without authorization, on condition thatthe source is indicated. For rights of reproduction or translation, application should be made to ILO Publications(Rights and Licensing), International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland, or by email:rights@ilo.org. The International Labour Office welcomes such applications.Libraries, institutions and other users registered with a reproduction rights organization may make copies inaccordance with the licences issued to them for this purpose. Visit www.ifrro.org to find the reproduction rightsorganization in your country.ISBN:978-92-2-130119-6 (web pdf)978-92-2-130120-2 (epub)978-92-2-130123-3 (mobi)The designations employed in ILO publications, which are in conformity with United Nations practice, and thepresentation of material therein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of theInternational Labour Office concerning the legal status of any country, area or territory or of its authorities, orconcerning the delimitation of its frontiers.The responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles, studies and other contributions rests solely withtheir authors, and publication does not constitute an endorsement by the International Labour Office of theopinions expressed in them.Reference to names of firms and commercial products and processes does not imply their endorsement by theInternational Labour Office, and any failure to mention a particular firm, commercial product or process is not asign of disapproval.Information on ILO publications and digital products can be found at: www.ilo.org/publns.Printed in Switzerland
ContentsAcknowledgements. 31.Introduction . 42.What are labour statistics? . 42.1.Labour statistics are official statistics . 52.2.Labour statistics refer to productive activities . 52.3.Labour statistics are multidimensional . 62.4.Scope of labour statistics . 72.5.Labour statistics and decent work . 92.6.Labour statistics and the Sustainable Development Goals . 93.What are labour statistics for?. 94.How are labour statistics produced? . 105.6.4.1.Population census . 114.2.Household surveys (including labour force surveys) . 114.3.Establishment census and surveys. 124.4.Administrative records. 124.5.National accounts . 134.6.Big data . 144.7.Other sources . 144.8.Consolidated labour market information systems . 15What are the international standards for labour statistics? . 165.1.The ILO Department of Statistics . 165.2.Conventions and Recommendations of the International Labour Conference . 175.3.Resolutions and Guidelines of the International Conference of Labour Statisticians . 18How to use and interpret labour statistics effectively? . 186.1.Scope and meaning of labour statistics determined by their source and methodology . 196.2.Leading indicators versus lagging indicators . 276.3.Units of measurement and central tendency measures . 286.4.Uncertainty and reliability . 316.5.Seasonal adjustments . 326.6.Labour indicators as a coherent framework . 347.Concluding remarks . 368.Annex: Summary information on the sources of labour statistics . 372
AcknowledgementsThis quick guide was drafted by Rosina Gammarano of the ILO Department ofStatistics’ Data Production and Analysis Unit, based on her experience in providingtraining on labour statistics and dealing with non-advanced data users’ requests. Thequality of the first draft was improved by the editorial work and guidance of StevenKapsos, as well as by valuable comments from other colleagues in the Department,notably Ritash Sarna, Marie-Claire Sodergren, Yves Perardel, Hakki Ozel and ValentinaStoevska. For some sections of this document, and particularly figure 1, the author drewinspiration from presentations on labour statistics initially prepared by Monica Castillo.3
1. IntroductionThe term statistics comes from the German “statistic” which referred to the sciencedealing with facts of a state and derived from the New Latin “statisticus” (“concerningstate affairs”) and from the Latin “status” (“state”).1 Thus, statistics were originallyintended for government use and to provide data on the state territory andcharacteristics.Labour statistics are a body of official statistics which deals with work, productiveactivities, workers, the characteristics of the labour market and the way it operates. Theyencompass a wide range of topics and link to many other bodies of official statistics, suchas economic statistics, education statistics and health statistics, to name a few.Having timely, valid, reliable, and comparable labour statistics is crucial to inform policyformulation, implementation and evaluation, labour market research and goal setting andmonitoring. Such labour statistics can be derived from a number of different types ofsources, including population censuses, household surveys and establishment surveys.The quality and meaning of the labour statistics produced depends on the characteristics,strengths and limitations of the source used. To ensure the comparability and robustnessof labour statistics, the methodology used to produce them should ideally followinternational standards.The production of labour statistics is never a goal in itself, but it is always a means to anend (or more accurately, various ends). The true value of labour statistics lies in theanalysis and interpretation made of them, and their ability to support evidence-baseddecision and policy-making.This guide provides an overview of the main characteristics of labour statistics, theirscope and uses. It also describes the types of sources of labour statistics available,indicating the main advantages and disadvantages of each source, before moving on tointroducing the international standards underlying labour statistics. The guide also seeksto demonstrate the importance of labour statistics in terms of their analytical potential.Although the guide is not exhaustive and does not thoroughly describe each possiblespecific source of labour statistics and every eventual use of labour statistics, it serves asan introductory tool to the field of labour statistics. It is addressed to people wishing togain a basic understanding of labour statistics so as to apply this in their work or to bettergrasp labour market developments. This includes researchers, journalists, students ofvarious subjects, data users in general and anyone who is eager to learn about the labourmarket.2. What are labour statistics?Labour statistics are a very relevant and necessary body of official statisticsfocusing on the productive activities of workers and eventually deficiencies of the labour1Collins English Dictionary, available at: sh4
market, from many perspectives and covering many dimensions. The following sectionsexplore in detail these main characteristics of labour statistics, namely their place inofficial statistics, their reference to productive activities, their multidimensional nature,and their scope.2.1.Labour statistics are official statisticsAs mentioned in the introduction, the link between statistics and the government(state) is embedded even in the etymology of the word statistics, that is, their officialnature is at the heart of their very definition. This is no different for labour statistics.Official labour statistics are generally produced by the institution in charge of statisticsin a country. This is usually a separate agency: the national statistical office or institute,but it could also be a unit of another agency (a related ministry, for instance). In particularfor labour statistics, the labour ministry could be in charge of the compilation anddissemination of data where a national statistical office does not exist or does not havethe relevant mandate or resources.The institution in charge of labour statistics should be part of the government so as toensure the production and dissemination of statistics as a public interest, to inform policymakers as well as the general public, instead of pursuing private interests (as is the caseof private companies producing statistics for their own purposes).However, in spite of being part of the government, the institution in charge of statisticsshould be independent from the government. Full autonomy is necessary to ensure therobustness of the methodologies used and the reliability of the figures, untarnished bypolitical or other concerns.2The national statistical system includes many different bodies of statistics in addition tolabour statistics, such as national accounts, industrial production statistics, agriculturalstatistics, demographic statistics, education statistics, and health statistics. Ideally, all ofthese bodies of statistics would be linked together and consolidated through the use ofconsistent methods.2.2.Labour statistics refer to productive activitiesLabour statistics refer to the productive activities of workers, and the labourmarket deficiencies associated with them. Work comprises any activity performed bypersons of any sex and age to produce goods or to provide services for use by others orfor own use3, and labour statistics potentially cover all forms of work. This includes work2For further information on the main principles guiding the production and dissemination of official statistics,refer to the Resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 29 January 2014, on FundamentalPrinciples of Official Statistics, available at .aspx3As defined in the Resolution concerning statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization, adoptedby the Nineteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (October 2013), available ernationalconferences-of-labour-statisticians/WCMS 230304/lang--en/index.htm5
for pay or profit for use by others (employment), work not for pay or profit for use byothers (unpaid trainee work, volunteer work, and other work activities) and work forown final use (own-use production work).The need to produce statistics on forms of work other than employment has beenrecently recognized officially, with the first definitions for these other forms of workincorporated in the 2013 Resolution concerning statistics of work, employment and labourunderutilization.4 Thus, labour statistics around the world focus mainly on employment(as opposed to other forms of work).Labour statistics also seek to provide a comprehensive picture of the labour market,informing on both the supply side and the demand side. Statistics on labour supply referto data on the population (actually or potentially) providing the labour input needed inthe economy, that is, data on the employed, the unemployed and persons outside thelabour force (which together represent the whole population, or the working-agepopulation in cases where a lower or upper age limit is used), as well as on their specificcharacteristics (sex, age, economic activity, occupation, educational level, etc.). Statisticson labour demand refer to the users and uses of the labour input, that is, data on theenterprises creating employment, vacancies, jobs, productivity, etc.2.3.Labour statistics are multidimensionalIn addition to covering productive activities from various perspectives (laboursupply and labour demand, work for pay and profit or not, work for use by others or not),labour statistics also include data on multiple dimensions.The various aspects and issues of the labour market covered by labour statistics spanacross disciplines such as demography (ratio of working-age-population to totalpopulation, ratio of youth to adults, ratio of seniors to adults, etc.), economics(productivity, wages, unemployment, etc.) and social studies (labour marketperformance according to sex, age, educational level, etc.). Labour statistics are alsoclosely connected to other statistical areas such as statistics on household income andexpenditure and the consumer price index, since these allow for the assessment ofhousehold living conditions and minimum wage setting, part and parcel of the world ofwork.Labour statistics also provide tools to study labour markets both at the micro and macrolevels. They allow us to investigate and understand decisions, behaviours and labourmarket performance of individuals and enterprises (microeconomic perspective), as wellas the labour market performance of the country as a whole (macroeconomicperspective).4The full text of the resolution is available at S 230304/lang-en/index.htm6
Naturally, all of this can (and should) be studied over time, so as to assess fluctuations.The analysis of short-term and long-term trends is another key part of labour statistics.Thus, labour statistics present the variety of measures needed to potentially convey acomprehensive picture of the labour market, covering demographic and socioeconomicaspects, the labour market performance of individuals, businesses and the economy as awhole, the characteristics of labour supply and labour demand, all forms of work and alltypes of productive activities, and providing the means to study their evolution.2.4.Scope of labour statisticsAs stated above, labour statistics focus on a wide range of labour markets issuesand their variations over time, which means that the scope of labour statistics is vast.Labour statistics refer both to labour demand and supply. Statistics about labour demandinclude data on the number and characteristics of enterprises, jobs, and vacancies as wellas the costs of hiring. Statistics about labour supply deal with the working-age population,presenting data on its size, structure and characteristics, and more specifically,information on employment, unemployment, and persons outside the labour force. Someof the main characteristics of jobs and employment covered by labour statistics includeearnings, working time, economic activity, occupation, status in employment,establishment size, private/public sector, formal/informal sector, social dialogue,occupational injuries, and social security coverage.5 The figure below summarizes theitems within the scope of labour statistics.5For more information, check the ILO webpage on Overview and topics of labour statistics, tatistics-overview-and-topics/lang--en/index.htm7
Figure 1. The scope of labour statisticsEnterprises- Ownership- Size- Economic activity- Location- Establishments (number, sizeand characteristics)- Occupational injuries- Unionization- Collective bargaining- Strikes- National output andincome- Gross Domestic Product- Gross Value Added- Labour productivity- Labour income share- Employment creation,productivityVacancies- Skills required- Economic activity- Occupation- Jobs- Pay- Labour costs- Hours paid for- Employment creation, workingconditions, skills neededLabour demandCountryMacroWorking-age population- Sex/gender- Age- Educational level- Education attendance- Nationals/migrants- Disability status- Rural/urban areas- Employed persons- Status in employment- Occupation- Economic activity- Private/public sector- Hours of work (hours actuallyworked, hours usually worked)- Earnings- Informal employment- Occupational injuries anddiseases- Unionization- Collective bargaining- Strikes- Unemployed persons- Job search methods- Duration of unemployment- Qualifications- Previous work experience- Previous occupation- Previous economic activity- Receipt of unemploymentbenefits- Persons outside thelabour force- Reasons for being outsidethe labour force- Desire to work- Availability- Job search- Qualifications- Previous work experience- Receipt of benefits suchas pensions- Characteristics of employment,working conditionsPressures on the labour market,access to the labour marketLabour marketattachmentLabour supplyEnterprisesPotential laboursupplyIndividualsMicro8
2.5.Labour statistics and decent workAs discussed in the previous sections, labour statistics cover many differentaspects of the world of work, referring to labour supply and demand, and casting light notonly on the quantity of employment but also on its quality. Quality of employmentpertains to the various dimensions of working conditions, including earnings, workingtime, status in employment, sector of employment (formal or informal), collectivebargaining coverage, and unionization, to name a few.This is closely related to the concept of “decent work”6, which represents the ideal ofenough freely-chosen, quality jobs for all men and women who wish to work. Decentwork stands on four main pillars: employment creation, rights at work, social protectioncoverage and social dialogue, with gender equality underlying all of them, with a view toachieving sustainable, inclusive economic growth, and eliminating poverty.In order to monit
as economic statistics, education statistics and health statistics, to name a few. Having timely, valid, reliable, and comparable labour statistics is crucial to inform policy formulation, implementation and evaluation, labour market research and goal setting and monitoring. Such labour statistics can be derived from a number of different types of
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