Database descriptions, statistical standards (resolutions and guidelines), and guides and manuals – all the metadata to better understand the labour statistics presented on ILOSTAT.

Meeting documents from the International Conferences of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) from 1923 to the present are organized by session.
21st ICLS - 11 to 20 October 2023
Tripartite Meeting of Experts in Labour Statistics on the Revision of the Standards for Statistics on Informality, Geneva, 7-10 February 2023:
- Report for discussion
- Country practices for measuring informal sector and informal employment
- Dependent Contractors and the framework of the informal economy
- Defining informality for contributing family workers
- Conceptual Framework for Statistics on the Informal Economy
- Contextualising informality: The Informal Economy Indicator Framework (draft)
- Report from the meeting
The Director-General proposes the following agenda:
- general report on past and planned statistical activities of the ILO since the last ICLS in October 2018;
- revision of the standards for statistics on informality;
- examination of concepts, statistical definitions and measurement methods of issues relevant for decent work, including indicators identified under ILO’s custodianship in the Global Indicator Framework set up for monitoring the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda; violence and harassment at work; International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08); international labour migration; child labour; forced labour; and cooperatives.
20th ICLS - 10 to 19 October 2018
The Conference adopted four resolutions concerning statistics on work relationships, child labour and the methodology of SDG indicators on labour rights and youth employment.
Adopted Resolutions
Resolution I: Resolution concerning statistics on work relationships
Resolution II: Resolution concerning the methodology of the SDG Indicator 8.8.2 on labour rights
Resolution III: Resolution concerning the methodology of the SDG Indicator 8.b.1 on youth employment
Resolution IV: Resolution to amend the 18th ICLS Resolution concerning statistics of child labour
Adopted Guidelines
Guidelines concerning statistics on international labour migration
Guidelines concerning the measurement of forced labour
Guidelines concerning measurement of qualifications and skills mismatches of persons in employment
Day 7
Lunch Event: Counting women’s work and employment: methodologies and policy responses
High Level Panel
After 100 years of the ILO, what is the future of labour statistics?
The future of informal work, the future of statistics on informal work
The Future of Labor Statistics: Inclusivity, Capacity, Usability and Funding
“After 100 years of the ILO, what is the future of labour statistics?”
Big Data and the Future of Labor Market Statistics
Day 6
Plenary
Measuring informality-Revision of the statistical framework of informality
International Standard Classification of Occupations, 2008 (ISCO-08)
Lunch event: Communicating the New labour market indicators: Challenges and lessons learned
Day 5
Plenary
Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) – Global Data Structure Definition (DSD)
Labour market information systems (LMIS)
Statistics on multinational enterprises
ILO capcity building on statistics in Europe and Central Asia
Activities carried out in the Latin America and the Caribbean Region 2013 – 2017
International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO) – Capacity Building for Statistics
ILO Statistical Capacity Initiatives in the Asia and the Pacific Region, for the period 2013-2018
Regional Perspectives on capacity building – Regional Bureau for Arab States
ILO Statistical Capacity Building and Technical Support in Africa: 2014 – 2018
Committee – Report II – Statistics on Work Relationships
Proposed Indicators in the Draft Resolution on Work Relationships
Day 4
Plenary
Labour Statistics Standards: Conventions and Recommendations
Data Collection, Production and Dissemination
Lunch event
Launch of the ILO Guidebook on SDG Labour Market Indicators
Day 3
Plenary
Measurement of volunteer work: progress and challenges
Statistics on employment in the environmental sector and green jobs
Disability statistics – Labour market characteristics of persons with disabilities
Inter-secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys
Draft guidelines on measurement of forced labour
Committee – Review of the methodology of Tier III SDG indicators
SDG Indicator 8.b.1: Proposed methodology
Lunch event
Reflecting Citizen Contributions to SDGs using Statistics on Volunteer Work
Day 2
Plenary
From ICSE-93 to Statistics on Work Relationships
19th ICLS implementation: National LFS practices and implementation plans
Draft Guidelines concerning Statistics on International Labour Migration
Lunch event
Day 1
Gender Mainstreaming in Labour Statistics
Measurement of Decent Work and Measurement of Quality of Employment
Room document 1 – Methodology for SDG indicator 8.8.2 on labour rights
Room document 2 – Methodology for SDG indicator 8.b.1 on youth employment
Room document 3 – Rural-urban labour statistics
Room document 4 – Data collection guidelines for ICSE-18
Room document 5 – Conceptual framework for statistics on work relationships
Room document 6 – Statistical definition and measurement of dependent ‘self-employed’ workers
Room document 7 – Classification of owner-operators of corporations by status in employment
Room document 8 – The definition of domestic work and domestic workers for statistical purposes
Room document 9 – Multi-party work relationships; concepts, definitions and statistics
Room document 11 – Statistics on international labour migration
Appendix: Draft guidelines concerning statistics on international labour migration
Room document 12 – National practices in measuring volunteer work: A critical review
Room document 14 – Measurement of forced labour
Appendix: Draft guidelines concerning the measurement of forced labour
Room document 15 – Measurement of qualifications and skills mismatches of persons in employment
Room document 19 – Review of the case for revision of ISCO-08
Room document 20 – Statistics of cooperatives
Appendix: Draft guidelines concerning statistics of cooperatives
Provisional Programme (Subject to change)
Tentative Agenda of the Committee on Report II (Statistics on work relationships)
Draft Programme of work for the Committee on Review of the Methodology of Tier III SDG indicators
Conclusions of the Meeting of Experts in Labour Statistics (Geneva, 5–9 February 2018)
Resolution concerning statistics of child labour adopted by the 18th ICLS
Draft Labour Force Survey Module on disability (version March 2018)
Adopted Resolutions
Resolution I: Resolution concerning statistics on work relationships
Resolution II: Resolution concerning the methodology of the SDG Indicator 8.8.2 on labour rights
Resolution III: Resolution concerning the methodology of the SDG Indicator 8.b.1 on youth employment
Resolution IV: Resolution to amend the 18th ICLS Resolution concerning statistics of child labour
Adopted Guidelines
Guidelines concerning statistics on international labour migration
Guidelines concerning the measurement of forced labour
Guidelines concerning measurement of qualifications and skills mismatches of persons in employment
19th ICLS - 2 to 11 October 2013
The Conference adopted five resolutions concerning statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization; further work on forced labour, cooperatives and labour migration; and the functioning of the Conference.
Adopted Resolutions
Resolution I: Resolution concerning statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization
Resolution II: Resolution concerning further work on statistics of forced labour
Resolution III: Resolution concerning further work on statistics of cooperatives
Resolution IV: Resolution concerning further work on labour migration statistics
Adopted Guidelines
Guidelines concerning a statistical definition of employment in the environmental sector
Report I: General presentation
International Standard Classification of Occupations
Report II: Statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization
Unpaid household services and child labour
Monitoring and measuring decent work
Informal employment and informal sector
Statistics on labour migration
Statistics on work-related violence
MDG indicators & the post-2015 development agenda
Revision of the International Classification of Status in Employment (ICSE-93)
Room document 2 – Unpaid household and child labour
Room document 3 – Forced labour and human trafficking
Room document 6 – Statistics on cooperatives
Room document 7 – Work-related violence and its integration into existing surveys
Room document 8 – Revision of the International Classification of Status in Employment (ICSE-93)
Room document 9 – Quality of employment
Room document 10 – Draft resolution (extract from Report II) in Arabic, Chinese, German and Russian
Room document 11 – Relevant resolutions and guidelines adopted by the ICLS
Room document 12 – Country practrices
Room document 13 – Identificaction of CharacteristicTourism Occupations – ISCO-08
18th ICLS - 24 November to 5 December 2008
The Conference adopted resolutions concerning statistics of working time and child labour; logistics of the Conference; and further work on measuring labour underutilization and decent work.
Resolution I: Resolution concerning the measurement of working time
Resolution II: Resolution concerning statistics of child labour
Resolution III: Resolution concerning the development of measures of labour underutilization
Resolution IV: Resolution concerning further work on the measurement of decent work
Resolution VI: Resolution concerning organization, frequency and duration of the ICLS
Report of the 7th session, 2006, «Groupe de Paris» – Extract on working time
Annual hours over eight centuries
Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work
Expressions of support for the proposed Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work
Beyond Unemployment: Measurement of Other Forms of Labour Underutilization
Standing orders for International Conferences of Labour Statisticians
Annotated agenda of the 18th International Conference of Labour Statisticians
Provisional timetable of the 18th International Conference of Labour Statisticians
Tripartite Meeting of Experts on the Measurement of Decent Work Seminar on ‘Employment and unemployment: Revisiting the relevance and conceptual basis of the statistics’
Web page
The JHU/ILO Volunteer Measurement Project
Event
17th ICLS - 24 November to 3 December 2003
The Conference adopted three resolutions concerning: household income and expenditure statistics, consumer price indices, and further work on the International Standard Classification of Occupations.
Adopted Resolutions
Resolution concerning household income and expenditure statistics
Resolution concerning consumer price indices
Resolution concerning further work on the International Standard Classification of Occupations
Adopted Guidelines
Guidelines concerning a statistical definition of informal employment
Other
Checklist of good practices for mainstreaming gender in labour statistics
Report I: General report, Seventeenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians
Report III: Consumer Price Indices, Seventeenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians
Report I: General report, Seventeenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians
Reports from prior ICLS (1923 - 1998)
I. Measurement of underemployment
II. Measurement of employment related income
III. Statistics of occupational injuries
Current International Recommendations on labour statistics, 2000
II. Statistics of strikes, lockouts and other forms of industrial action
III. Statistics of employment in the informal sectors
IV. Revision of the International Classification according to Status in Employment
III. Industrial disputes: statistics of strikes
IV. Revision of the International Standard Classification of Occupations, Part I
IV. Revision of the International Standard Classification of Occupations, Part II
II. Labour force, employment, unemployment and underemployment
III. Statistics of occupational injuries
IV. Revision of the ILO October Inquiry on occupational wages
V. International coding of labour statistics
VI. Statistics of paid holidays
Other documents:
Revision of the International Standard Classification of Occupations
Descriptions of selected occupations for the revised ILO October Inquiry on occupational wages
II. Statistics of wages and employee income
III. Revision of the International Standard Classification of Occupations
II. Statistics of employment injuries
III. Statistics of Hours of Work
IV. Special problems in the computation of consumer price index numbers
Other documents:
II. International Standard Classification of Occupations: major, minor and unit groups
III. International classification according to status
IV. Measurement of underemployment
V. Social security statistics: development and uses
Other documents:
II. International Standard Classification of Occupations: minor groups
III. International comparisons of real wages: a study of methods
IV. Employment and unemployment statistics
Other documents:
Some aspects of the International Standard Classification of Occupations
Methods of family living surveys
International standard classification of occupations
International Comparisons of Real Wages
Classification of industries
Family budget surveys
Statistics of collective agreements
Statistics of strikes and lockouts
Other documents:
Classification of industries
International comparisons of real wages
Other documents: