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Measurement of employment, unemployment and underemployment - Current international standards and issues in their application

Like any other market, the labour market consists of a supply side and a demand side. The labour supply of the population, referred to as the economically active population or labour force, has two components: employed persons and unemployed persons. The labour demand of enterprises and other production units, too, can be broken down in two components: jobs (filled posts) and job vacancies (unfilled posts). Due to the existence of multiple jobholding, the number of jobs tends to be larger than the number of employed persons. In most countries, statistics on the supply of labour are far better developed than statistics on the demand of labour. As a result, current international recommendations on labour market statistics deal almost exclusively with statistics on labour supply. Statistics of the economically active population, employment, unemployment and underemployment serve a large variety of purposes. They provide measures of labour supply, labour input, the structure of employment, and the extent to which the available labour time and human resources are actually utilised or not. Such information is essential for macro-economic and human resources development planning and policy formulation. When collected at different points in time, the data provide the basis for monitoring current trends and changes in the labour market and employment situation, which may be analysed in connection with other economic and social phenomena so as to evaluate macro-economic policies. The unemployment rate, in particular, is widely used as an overall indicator of the current performance of a nation's economy. Statistics of the economically active population, employment, unemployment and underemployment are also an essential base for the design and evaluation of government programmes geared to employment creation, vocational training, income maintenance, poverty reduction and similar objectives. The measurement of the relationships between employment, income and other socioeconomic characteristics provides information on the adequacy of employment of different subgroups of the population, the income-generating capacity of different types of economic activities, and the number and characteristics of persons unable to ensure their economic well being on the basis of the employment opportunities available to them. Information on employment and income, disaggregated by branches of economic activity, occupations and socio-demographic characteristics, is needed for collective bargaining, for assessment of the effects of poverty reduction policies on different subgroups of the population, and for the analysis of ethnical, gender or age inequalities in work opportunities and participation and their changes over time. Statistics of the economically active population and its components can be generated from various sources. Common sources of statistics on economically active, employed and unemployed persons are labour force surveys and other household sample surveys, as well as population censuses. Data on employment can also be obtained from establishment sample surveys, establishment or economic censuses, social security records, public sector payrolls, etc., and data on unemployment from administrative records on registered job seekers or recipients of unemployment benefits. The use of harmonised classifications, units, concepts and definitions enhances the comparability between statistics obtained from different sources. Data users must be aware that each source has its strengths and limitations, that different sources can validly provide different estimates, and that the use of several sources can help in analysing different facets of the employment situation, and in evaluating and improving the quality of statistics obtained from each source. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) promulgates international standards on the various topics of labour statistics. These standards are set by the International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS), which is convened by the ILO about every five years. They include: the ILO Labour Statistics Convention, 1985 (No. 160); the ILO Labour Statistics Recommendation, 1985 (No. 170); and the various Resolutions adopted by the ICLS on specific topics of labour statistics. The purpose of the ICLS Resolutions is to provide technical guidelines for the development of national