The workshop is to be delivered in partnership between the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Pacific Community (SPC), with funding support from the World Bank through the Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB), for the benefit of multiple Pacific Island Countries (PICs).
The Pacific region has been collecting labour market data for many years. Despite the fact that only 12 labour force surveys have been conducted across seven PICs since 1990, numerous censuses and surveys collect labour market data. These data largely remain underexploited, which is evidenced by the fact that only eight (of the 22) PICs have unemployment data reported in ILOSTAT (https://www.ilo.org/ilostat).
The long time series of underexploited labour market data sets, which are often in common format as Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) have been implementing a standardised labour force module in census and survey, presents an opportunity to fill gaps – where they exist – in labour market indicators while building the capacity of national statistical agencies in the Pacific region to analyse and disseminate labour market data.
The objectives of the workshop are:
- Strengthen capacity (of PIC national statistical agencies and SPC) in the use of census and survey data to populate key labour market indicators, including SDGs;
- Strengthen capacity in data processing, classification and analysis of labour market data;
- Strengthen capacity to standardize microdata to publish derived labour market variables in ILOSTAT;
- Coordinate with ILO to plan to draft a comprehensive set of harmonization guidelines, including conforming to ILOSTAT variable naming and structural conventions; and
- Draft labour market brief/fact sheet to disseminate indicators for each participating PIC.
It is anticipated that the workshop will result in the following outputs:
- Strengthened capacity of the Pacific region to populate labour market indicators using census and survey microdata;
- Strengthened capacity of the Pacific region in data processing, classification and analysis of labour market data;
- Improved collection of labour market data through data use feedback;
- Population of indicators in ILOSTAT to reduce the gaps in the Pacific region;
- Knowledge generated to produce guidelines to harmonize labour market data to rapidly populate labour market information systems; and
- Dissemination of labour oriented knowledge products.