ILO Centenary Anniversary and Development of Work Statistics
The article addresses methodological issues of labour statistics in the context of ongoing work of international organizations, first of all the International Labor Organization (ILO), as well as eff orts of national governments on implementing the system of indicators to monitor progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The paper shows conceptual approaches of the oldest international organization (that is the ILO) to the development of its statistical base in the 21st century and focusing its activities on the Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the UN General Assembly. The paper reviews the ILO centenary history of work on improving social and labour relations and labour statistics. It analyzes the activities of the International Labor Organization related to the development of its statistical base; special attention is paid to the development of a system of indicators to monitor progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the definite positive changes in in the ILO’s work, comparative analysis of recent ILO and World Bank reports revealed unresolved problems in the fields of international standards and labour statistics. Considerable attention has been paid to the main ILO initiatives on improving employment indicators reflected in the content of international conferences of labour statisticians. The role of indicators of decent work was especially highlighted, while the author noted that the very concept of ≪decent work≫, in contrast to the concept of ≪quality of work≫, did not receive sufficient statistical content. The article formulates the need for changes in Russian labour and social statistics in connection with the development of a list of SDG indicators and acute attention that is given to the “international poverty line” and “working poor”. It is necessary to bring Russian terminology of statistical indicators of ≪working poor≫ into line with the methodology and terminology of the ILO and the World Bank.