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MONITORING DECENT WORK IN TIMES OF JOB CRISIS

Rafael Diez de MedinaChief Statistician, Director

Department of Statistics, ILO Geneva

Busan, Korea 27-30 October 2009

3rd. OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy

Employment at risk

Employment and decent work as central to measure progress and well being. However, the topic is not dealt strongly by the Global project...

Indicators of global labour market distress are on the upward track and will continue well into 2010.

ILO forecasts 39 to 61 million of global increase in 2009 unemployment relative to 2007, meaning 219 to 241 million unemployed, the highest ever recorded

Danger of long-term damage to job prospects and productivity of current cohort of youth.

A jobless recovery will not be economically, socially or politically sustainable: Need to achieve a Global Jobs Pact

Global Job Pact

Adopted in the ILO International Labour Conference 2009. Call for urgent international action. Endorsed recently by the UN General Assembly and by the G20 Meeting in Pittsburg

Harnessing economic recovery to the expansion of decent work.

Governments, Business and Workers: integrated portfolio of tried and tested policies that puts employment and social protection at the centre of crisis response

Global Job Pact proposes:

Retain employment as far as possible and sustain enterprises, in particular SME

Promote investments in employment intensive sectors, incl. Green jobs and employment in agriculture

Facilitate rapid re-entry and address wage deflation

Protect people most vulnerable, like the Informal economy by social protection, income support and pensions

Acting on labour demand and supply

Equip workforce with skills needed

It is based on the Decent Work Agenda

Decent work Dimensions

Employment and Enterprise creation

Social Protection

Rights at work

Social Dialogue

Decent work as a global goal

ILC report (1999) describes decent work as

“opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity”.

Endorsed by ECOSOC, General Assembly, Regional Presidential and Head of States Summits, by E.C communications, UN system, etc.

ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization (2008) endorses Decent Work Agenda as main objective

Strategic objectives: (i) fundamental principles and rights at work, (ii) promoting employment; (iii) social protection; (iv) social dialogue and tripartism.

Commitments to monitor progress towards decent work

2008 Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization recommends that ILO Members may consider: “the establishment of appropriate indicators or statistics,

if necessary with the assistance of the ILO, to monitor and evaluate the progress made”

Monitoring of MDG Goal 1, Target 2: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work

for all, including women and young people.

Need for a framework for assessing and monitoring progress towards decent work.

Basic principles for measuring decent work

ILO GB have set the principles for measurement DW:

(i) to assist constituents to assess progress towards decent work and (ii) to offer comparable information for analysis and policy development.

NO ranking of countries & NO composite index.

Needs to cover all dimensions of Decent Work, i.e. go beyond employment and include rights, social protection and social dialogue.

Measurement to draw on existing statistics, but promotion of improved and extended coverage.

Labour statistics & decent work (i)

System of labour statistics does not cover all dimensions of decent work equally well.

International Statistical Standards and demands for new indicators: an uneasy trade-off.

Historically, labour market statistics have taken a macro-perspective on an economy and focused on: Labour supply and labour demand in an economy Employment and unemployment statistics; ICLS 1925 ... 1998)

Volume of work and labour cost in an economy Statistics of wages and hours of labour (ICLS 1923, 1925 ...)

Classifications: Classification of industries and occupations (ICLS 1923, 1925 …) International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) (ICLS

1949, ..., 1988, 2008) International classification according to status in employment

(ICSE) (ICLS 1957, 1993, 1998)

Labour statistics & decent work (ii)

Workers experience decent work (or decent work deficits) from a micro-perspective. They might ask: How family-friendly are work arrangements?

Do I get a living wage?

Do workers have to work long hours?

Can I join a union?

Do migrant workers face discrimination?

What happens when I fall sick?

How dangerous is work?

Will I get paid maternity / paternity leave when I get a baby? ....

On some of these questions, labour market statistics can give answers – but it’s more tricky for others.

Milestones towards Measuring Decent

Work

ILO GB mandate for Tripartite Meeting of Experts to provide guidance on options for measuring decent work:

Held in September 2008.

Reviews list of statistical indicators.

Stresses importance of rights and recommends to provide systematic information on rights at work and the legal framework for decent work in a manner consistent with ILO supervisory system.

The 2008 18th ICLS recommended set of activities to reach a final consensus on the set of indicators

Measuring decent work: Rights at work

Rights at work and the legal framework for decent work need to be fully reflected:

Number of ratifications & complaints is inadequate proxy for actual application of labour standards.

Two proposals:

Textual description of legal framework and data on actual application for all substantive elements of decent work (L).

Construction of indicators for countries’ compliance with Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, starting with FoA and Collective Bargaining.

Measuring decent work: Gender

Gender as a cross-cutting concern of the Decent Work Agenda:

Should not be treated in isolation, but measurement should inform about women’s and men’s access to decent work across all substantive elements.

Therefore, wherever possible, indicators should be reported separately for men and women in addition to the total.

In addition, indicators for vertical and horizontal segregation are included under ‘Equal opportunity and treatment in employment’.

Different types of statistical indicators

A layered approach to indicators:

Main indicators (M): parsimonious core set of indicators to monitor progress towards decent work.

Additional indicators (A): to be used where appropriate, and where data are available.

Context indicators (C): provide information on the economic and social context for decent work.

Future indicators (F): currently not feasible, but to be included as data become more widely available.

Information included under legal framework (L).

(S) Means that disaggregation by sex is suggested

Grouping of indicators under substantive elements of decent work

Grouping of indicators under substantive elements of the Decent Work Agenda:

Employment opportunities (1 + 2)

Adequate earnings and productive work (1 + 3)

Hours of Work (1 + 3)

Combining work, family and personal life (1 + 3)

Work that should be abolished (1 + 3)

Stability and security of work (1, 2 + 3)

Note: (1) Rights (2) Employment (3) Social Security (4) Social Dialogue

Grouping of indicators under substantive elements of decent work

Grouping (continued):

Equal opportunity and treatment in employment (1, 2 + 3)

Safe work environment (1 + 3)

Social security (1 + 3)

Social dialogue, workers’ and employers’ representation (1 + 4)

Economic and social context for decent work

Note: (1) Rights (2) Employment (3) Social Security (4) Social Dialogue

Grouping of indicators under

substantive elements of decent work

Employment opportunitiesM – Employment-to-population ratio, 15-64 years (S) (2)

M – Unemployment rate (S) (3)

M – Youth not in education and not in employment, 15-24 years (S) (4b)

M – Informal employment (S) (6)

A – Labour force participation rate, 15-64 years (1) [to be used especially where statistics on Employment-to-population ratio and/or Unemployment rate (total) are not available]

A –Youth unemployment rate,15-24 years (S) (4)

A – Unemployment by level of education (S) (3a)

A – Employment by status in employment (S) (5)

A – Proportion of own-account and contr. family workers in total employment (S) (5b) [to be used especially where statistics on informal employment are not available]

A – Share of wage employment in non-agricultural employment (S) (5a)

F – Labour underutilization (S)

L – Government commitment to full employment

L – Unemployment insurance



Adequate earnings and productive work M – Working poor (S) (9)M – Low pay rate (below 2/3 of

median hourly earnings) (S)

A - Average hourly earnings in selected occupations (S)

A - Average real wages (S)

A - Minimum wage as % of median wage

A - Manufacturing wage index

A - Employees with recent job training (past year / past 4 weeks) (S)

L – Statutory minimum wage



Decent hours M – Excessive hours (more than 48 hours per week;

A -‘Usual’ hours) (S)

A -Usual hours worked (standardized hour bands) (S)

A - Annual hours worked per employed person (S)

F -Time-related underemployment rate (S)

Paid annual leave (developmental work to be done by the Office; additional indicator)

L – Maximum hours of work L – Paid annual leave



Combining work, family and personal life

F – Asocial / unusual hours (Developmental work to be done by the Office)

F – Maternity protection (developmental work to be done by the Office; main indicator)

L – Maternity leave (incl. weeks of leave, replacement rate and coverage)L (additional) – Paternity and parental leave



Stability and security of work M – Stability and security of work (developmental work

to be done by the Office).

A – Number and wages of casual/daily workers (S)

Memo item: Informal employment grouped under employment opportunities.

L – Employment protection legislation (incl. notice of termination in weeks)

Memo item: Unemployment insurance grouped under employment opportunities; needs to be interpreted in conjunction for ‘flexicurity’.



Work that should be abolished

M – Child labour [as defined by draft ICLS resolution] (S) (8)

A – Hazardous child labour (S)

F – Other worst forms of child labour (S)

F – Forced labour (S)

L – Child labour (incl. public policies to combat it)

L – Forced labour (incl. public policies to combat it)



Equal opportunity and treatment in employment M – Occupational segregation by sex

M – Female share of employment in ISCO-88 groups 11 and 12

A – Gender wage gap

A – Indicator for Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (Elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation) to be developed by the Office

A – Measure for discrimination by race / ethnicity / of indigenous people / of (recent) migrant workers / of rural workers where relevant and available at the national level.

F – Measure of dispersion for sectoral / occupational distribution of (recent) migrant workers (20)

F – Measure for employment of persons with disabilities

Memo item: Indicators under other substantive elements marked (S) indicator should be reported separately for men and women in addition to the total.

L – Anti-discrimination law based on sex of worker

L – Anti-discrimination law based on race, ethnicity, religion or national origin



Safe work environment

M – Occupational injury rate, fatal

A – Occupational injury rate, non-fatal

A – Time lost due to occupational injuries

A – Labour inspection (inspectors per 10,000 employed persons)

L – Occupational safety and health insurance

L – Labour inspection



Social security M – Share of population aged 65 and above benefiting from a pension (S)

M – Public social security expenditure (% of GDP)

A – Health-care exp. not financed out of pocket by private households)

A – Share of population covered by (basic) health care provision (S)

F – Share of econ. active population contributing to a pension scheme (S)

F – Public expenditure on needs-based cash income support (% of GDP) )

F – Beneficiaries of cash income support (% of the poor)

F – Sick leave (developmental work to be done by the Office; additional indicator)

[Interpretation in conjunction with legal framework and labour market statistics.]

L – Pension (public / private)

L – Incapacity for work due to sickness / sick leave

L – Incapacity for work due to invalidity



Social dialogue, workers’ and employers’

M – Union density rate (S)

M – Enterprises belonging to employer organization [rate]

M – Collective bargaining coverage rate (S)

M – Indicator for Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining) to be developed by the Office

A – Strikes and lockouts/rates of days not worked [interpretation issues]

L – Freedom of association and right to organize

L – Collective bargaining right

L – Tripartite consultations



Economic and social context for decent work

C – Children not in school (% by age) (S)

C – Estimated % of working-age population who are HIV positive

C – Labour productivity (GDP per employed person, level and growth rate)

C – Income inequality (percentile ratio P90/P10, income or consumption)

C – Inflation rate (CPI)

C – Employment by branch of economic activity

C – Education of adult population (adult literacy rate, adult secondary-school graduation rate) (S)

C – Labour share in GDP

C (additional) – Real GDP per capita in PPP$ (level and growth rate)

C (additional) – Female share of employment by industry (ISIC tabulation category)

C (additional) – Wage / earnings inequality (percentile ratio P90/P10)

Decent work country profiles

Presentation of information in decent work country profiles: Can be adapted to country needs by adding additional

indicators (A) as required.

Long time-horizon (e.g. 1998-2008).

Supported by the European Commission through a special project

Start with pilot countries from different regions (Austria, Brazil, Peru, Tanzania, Malaysia, Cambodia, Ukraine).

Pending successful pilot phase, the aim is to compile around 30 country profiles per year.

Decent Work Indicators, PRS and National Development Frameworks

Call to strengthen statistical offices in the world and to the international community to support them (eg.Paris 21)

Decent work indicators can be adapted to national circumstances and used to monitor DWCPs, PRS and National Development Frameworks

Incorporates objectives of the Decent Work Agenda beyond quantity of employment.

Offers opportunity to compare progress against that of other countries and to draw policy lessons / provide them to other countries.

Calls to other agencies to support their collection (CEB Toolkit for Mainstreaming Decent Work adopted in 2007 by UN and BWI endorsed by ECOSOC)

Thank you!

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