Overview

1. Initiating Harmonisation of the LFS and other ILO collaboration in the Area of Labour Market Information

2. Overview • Harmonisation of LFS project • Decent Work Country Programmes and ILO SRO-POS’s strategy on labour market information/statistics • Linking labour statistics activities/projects with their inclusion in policy (documents) at the project design stage • Support for the LFS as the major source of LMI with emphasis on: • Countries with limited employment Statistics (only Pop Census) • Informal employment and under-employment • Improvement of non-employment labour statistics on Labour with a focus on the MoL’s capacity to deliver statistics from its own administrative records (country based approach) • Consolidating the gains in recent years with respect to: • Occupational Wage Survey gains (Bahamas, Barbados, St Lucia, Guyana and Suriname) expanding the survey to other countries • Internationally comparable productivity indicators (OECD methodology) produced by the NSO

3. Harmonisation of LFS project Objective • NSOs produce and submit a set of harmonised statistics on: • Population, working-age population,employment, unemployment, time-related underemployment and informal employment • With an agreed periodicity to the CARICOM Secretariat and the ILO Sub-regional Office (ILO SRO-POS) for the Caribbean

4. Harmonisation of LFS project: Selected countries • Only limited funding. Funding comes form the regular SRO-POS budget • Six countries have successfully implemented the LFS uninterrupted since the early nineties: Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago • Because of funding constraints the final selection included only five countries

5. Project overview and current status

6. Main conclusions based on the ILO report on harmonisation of LFS in the five countries • Strong basis for harmonisation: • All have used international standards establishing and revising their LFS although there are variations in the extent to which these standards have actually been used • None of them currently implement detailed measurment of informal employment or established indicators of under-employment • There is a willingness and urgency to harmonise employment indicators • One year to one and a half year is a feasible time frame to achieve the full range of proposed harmonisation

7. Main conclusions based on the ILO report on harmonisation of LFS in the five countries • Sensitive issues relating to harmonisation: • The Unemployment rate. There are no major problems in this respect. The two key issues here are: • Using the strict versus the relaxed unemployment definition. Only Jamaica uses the relaxed definition but following the ICLS resolution STATIN publishes both rates. • The impact of using a standard 4 weeks reference period for the harmonised series. It is expected that this will result in small changes in the rate. The case of Trinidad and Tobago is illustrative. The CSO uses two reference periods “one week” and “3 months” but the difference between the two rates is small • Income estimates. Here harmonisation issues are overlapping issues relating to proper implementation of the international standards and other measurement issues. It is expected that resolving these issues may be presented not primarily as “harmonisation” but as enhancing the quality and detail of income measurement • Hours of work estimates. NO major problems forseen • Classifications. With the age, ISIC, ISCO, ICSE no major problems are forseen, However the educational classification is an are concern

8. Responsibility for the harmonised series • Considering the sensitivities involved the proposed strategy is to decide on the is of responsibility using a “country by country” approach with two options: • The NSO takes responsibility. Where the NSO can publish this series parallel to its national series without running into problems with the stakeholders this is the best option. • The CARICOM Secretariat and/or the ILO take responsibility. Where inclusion is a problem NSOs may prefer to provide the estimates to the CARICOM/ILO. In this case the public will be informed that the estimates are produced and published specifically for the purpose of regional/international comparison • To facilitate acceptance of this regionally harmonised series it is recommended that the COSHOD or higher body endorses the series as a milestone in the process of regional integration

9. Next steps • Work session in Jamaica on the 29th and 30th of November to produce National Implementation plans • National process of decision making and or awareness building • Design of a synchronised regional plan based on the national plans • Sourcing the necessary funding • Production of first round of series • Endorsement of the series at the regional level

10. Decent Work Country Programmes and ILO SRO-POS’s programme for labour market information/statistics

11. Decent Work Country Programmes and LMI • The ILO SRO-POS will focus on the design and adoption of Decent Work Country Programmes (DWCP) in the region • The DWCP will contain the joint Country-ILO efforts/activities to enhance decent work in that specific country • Linking labour statistics are critical to the design of these programmes and the underlying policies • Focussing on linking the LMI activities/projects in these DWCP means ensuring that at the project design stage it is clear to policymakers in which key national policy documents the LMI (analysis) will be integrated • In the process of drafting a programme on LMI and will seek to reach consensus on it with the UN-Agencies that have offices in the region. Responses on the initial outlines of the programme are much appreciated

12. The labour force survey • The ILO has been consistent in its support to the countries in establishing and enhancing the LFS as the major source of LMI/LS • From the harmonisation of LFS project it is clear that this support will continue to be our focus with emphasis on Informal employment and under-employment • Two countries with limited employment Statistics (only Pop Census) will receive technical support to: • Establish an (annual or bi-annual) LFS in a sustainable way • Establish a quarterly series on “paid employment in the formal sector” based on administrative data

13. Improvement of “non-employment” labour statistics on Labour • Non-employment labour statistics include indicators/statistics on: • Wages (largely with NSOs) • Social protection • Industrial relations • Organisation, recognition and Collective bargaining • Disputes and complaints • Industrial action (employees involved, time (days lost) by type and reason • Dismissals and redundancies • OSH • Working poor • The major focus the ILO activities will be to establish or enhance the capacity of the Ministries and Departments of Labour to generate statistics from their own administrative records. Effort will focus on: • Procedures in the labour administration and the creation of standardised records that facilitate the compilation of statistics • Establishing a human resource capability and the necessary infra-structure

14. Consolidating the gains in recent years • Occupational Wage Survey gains (Bahamas, Barbados, St Lucia, Guyana and Suriname) expanding the survey to other countries • Internationally comparable, disaggregated Productivity Indicators (PI) using the OECD methodology. Drawing on the experience with producing PI in the region (part of the CLMIS project) the three major lessons learned are: • There is a need for harmonisation within the NSO since compilation of internationally comparable PI requires the use of input data coming from various departments and sources within the NSO • The task to produce PI should be located in the CSO for the purpose of access to micro data files and the expertise needed which is usually located in the National Account unit of the NSO. • There is a need to enhance and continuously update the human capability. • Support for the production of PI should include support for” the analysis and use in” • Broader economic and social analysis by Government policy and planning units, Universities and research centres • Benchmarking in support of polices and programmes of Productivity Centres and individual employers and Trade Unions to monitor and enhance productivity and competitiveness as well as relate productivity to the development of standards of living

15. Consolidating the gains in recent years • Classifications of Occupations • New ISCO • The CLIMS project delivered three products • A limited update of the National Classifications of Occupations of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago (IT and tourism and the petroleum sector in Trinidad and Tobago) • Caribbean Occupational Information Exchange facility (COEIF) is an internet facility created as part of the CLMIS project and ready to go online pending formal approval of the owners of these copy righted classifications. The ISCO and the three updated national classifications are in the same electronic format with a crosswalk to link them. It has two modules • Public module just for viewing and providing feedback • Custodian and NSO module that allows to manipulate the content. • A draft strategy to achieve a regional occupational classification • There is a need to revitalise and use this tool as part of the preparations for the 2010 Census round