Collecting statistics on imbalances in the demand for labour

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Hoffmann, Eivind

Affiliations: Bureau of Statistics, International Labour Office 4, Route des Morillons, CH-1211 Geneve 22, Switzerland. Fax: +41 22 799 6957; E-mail: hoffmann@ilo.org

Note: [] Based on a paper originally prepared for the International Conference of Statisticians, Radenci, Slovenia, 27–29 November 1995. The permission of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia to make use of the paper in this form is gratefully acknowledged. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the International Labour Office or its Bureau of Statistics. The author is responsible for the interpretation of the national experiences presented and apologises for any mistakes.

Abstract: Given the degree of international agreement on the definition and statistical measurement of ‘employment’ and ‘unemployment’, reached after a long period of discussion and comparison of the experience and practices of many countries, it is interesting that there has been so little international discussion of the definition and statistical measurement of ‘vacancies’ and ‘excess labour’. This paper presents suggestions and implications for an approach to the statistical measurement of ‘vacancies’ parallel to that of the international recommendations concerning the measurement of ‘unemployment’, and goes on to discuss some of the practical problems involved in the measurement of ‘vacancies’ and other variables which may be used as indicators of demand side manifestations of imbalances in the labour market.

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-1999-162-301

Journal: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 16, no. 2-3, pp. 105-121, 1999