The leading source of labour statistics

© Marcel Crozet / ILO

Statistics on employment

Employment statistics describe the number of persons in employment and the characteristics of their jobs. Most ILOSTAT employment data follow the 13th ICLS standards; employment statistics compiled according to the 19th ICLS (2013) are available in the WORK database.

Data catalogue

Browse by:
(Select up to 3)

Analytical publications

Note: Many publications are available only in English. If available in other languages, a new page will open displaying the options on the right. 

Digital labour platforms: Number of platforms and workers

This brief examines the growth of digital labour platforms and provides updated estimates on the number of active platforms and workers engaged through them. It highlights persistent measurement gaps and underscores the need for internationally agreed statistical standards to improve comparability and inform policy.

Employment and Social Trends 2026

This report examines the state of global labour markets, highlighting stable headline employment alongside stalled progress in job quality and widening inequalities. The report analyses productivity, demographic and economic pressures shaping work in the year ahead and outlines the challenges to achieving more inclusive growth.

The State of Social Justice 2025

This report evaluates key indicators used to measure the global progress and ongoing challenges in achieving social justice, building on the premise of the ILO

World Employment and Social Outlook: May 2025 Update

The latest edition of the World Employment and Social Outlook (WESO) Trends reveals new data on job growth forecasts, shifting employment trends, income inequality, and the implications of technological change. It also explores the risks tied to rising geopolitical tensions and trade disruptions, and their ripple effects across regions and sectors.

World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2025

The WESO Trends 2025 report provides an in-depth analysis of global labour market trends, highlighting the impacts of slowing economic recovery, persistent youth unemployment, and gender disparities. It examines the structural challenges facing workers worldwide and offers insights into regional and global patterns shaping the future of work.

The working poor… or how a job is no guarantee of decent living conditions

This issue of ILOSTAT’s Spotlight on work statistics focuses on employed people living in extreme poverty around the world. Using ILO’s global estimates of employment by economic class, it shows the great progress achieved during the last few decades in reducing working poverty in the world, and how more effort is still needed to completely eradicate it, particularly considering the strong regional disparities.

Where are the jobs?

This brief casts light on the trends in employment by sector and occupation, by focusing first on the broad sectors and occupations at the global level before moving on to analysing regional patterns.

Methods

Worker and sector profiles (PROFILES database)

Concise description of concepts and definitions, uses, sources and limitations of indicators in the Worker and Sector Profiles, including definitions for the groups of occupations and/or sectors recombined to create these profiles.

Quick guide on the communication of results after implementation of latest standards on statistics of work, employment, and labour underutilization

A crucial aspect of the implementation of latest labour statistics standards is the effective communication of the results, to ensure getting the best out of the data. This guide aims to provide practical data visualization examples to convey clearly and intuitively the impact of methodological changes on key labour indicators following the implementation of the 19th ICLS resolution and avoid misinterpretation of the results.

Survey Questions for Collecting Data on Work Relationships and Informality

This document provides recommended survey questions for collecting data on work relationships (ICSE-18), informal employment, and the classification of economic units across three sectors: informal, formal, and household own-use production and community sector. (HOC). It incorporates the 20th ICLS resolution on work relationships (ICSE-18) and the 21st ICLS resolution on statistics for the informal economy.

Related pages

ILO Modelled Estimates (ILOEST database)

Discover the methods behind the ILO’s modelled estimates on labour force statistics (including the working poor), labour productivity, wage growth and labour migration.

Worker and sector profiles (PROFILES database)

Concise description of concepts and definitions, uses, sources and limitations of indicators in the Worker and Sector Profiles, including definitions for the groups of occupations and/or sectors recombined to create these profiles.

Working poverty rate

This snapshot presents global and regional trends along with the most recent country-level figures. All data are ILO modelled estimates, with the underlying employment figures

Skip to content