The International Labor Comparisons Program (ILC) of the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) adjusts
economic statistics (with an emphasis on labor statistics) to a common conceptual framework in order to make data comparable across countries. Its data can be used to evaluate the economic performance of one country relative to that of other countries and to assess international competitiveness.
Since 2014, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the government of the United States, U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics, labor economics and ...
has discontinued this program, but
The Conference Board
The Conference Board, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) non-profit business membership and research organization. It counts over 1,000 public and private corporations and other organizations as members, encompassing 60 countries.
Th ...
continues to publish the majority of the data series.
History
Precursors of the International Labor Comparisons Program
The first commissioner of the
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the government of the United States, U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics, labor economics and ...
,
Carroll Wright, began the BLS tradition of international comparisons. He sent members of his staff to Europe to collect information on foreign labor force trends. In 1898, BLS published a report that compared wages in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
to those in Europe and in 1902 it published a report that described labor conditions in
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
.
In 1915, the first issue of the ''
Monthly Labor Review
The ''Monthly Labor Review'' (''MLR'') is published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the government o ...
'', the Bureau's research journal, contained articles on employment and various other
economic indicators in foreign countries. In the late 1940s, BLS assisted in the implementation of the
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $ in ) in economic recovery pr ...
by developing international comparisons of
labor productivity
Workforce productivity is the amount of goods and services that a group of workers produce in a given amount of time. It is one of several types of productivity that economists measure. Workforce productivity, often referred to as labor produc ...
and providing technical assistance to European governments for developing their own productivity statistics.
Founding of the current program
BLS formed the current international comparisons program in the 1960s as the importance of
foreign trade
International trade is the exchange of Capital (economics), capital, goods, and Service (economics), services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (See: World economy.)
In most countr ...
and interest in international
competition
Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...
grew. The first study published by the program was an evaluation of the comparability of
unemployment rates
This is a list of countries by unemployment rate. Methods of calculation and presentation of unemployment rate vary from country to country.
Some countries count insured unemployed only, some count those in receipt of welfare benefit only, some co ...
undertaken in response to a 1961 request by the Committee to Appraise Employment and Unemployment Statistics. In 1963, the program began to publish trends of
labor productivity
Workforce productivity is the amount of goods and services that a group of workers produce in a given amount of time. It is one of several types of productivity that economists measure. Workforce productivity, often referred to as labor produc ...
and unit labor costs for the
manufacturing sector. In the mid-1970s, the program published level comparisons of
Gross Domestic Product per Capita and by 1980 levels of hourly compensation (wages and benefits) in the manufacturing sector.
Recent developments
Over time, the program expanded its coverage of labor indicators and countries. In addition to the aforementioned labor indicators, the program began to publish a number of related indicators, such as average annual hours,
exchange rates, and
consumer price indexes. Further, the program originally covered only selected
developed countries
A developed country, or advanced country, is a sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy, and advanced technological infrastructure relative to other less industrialized nations. Most commonly, the criteria for eval ...
. As
developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed Secondary sector of the economy, industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. ...
became more important to U.S. trade, the program expanded its coverage to include selected
emerging economies in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.
In addition, the program produced a number of special international studies on topics, such as compensation and employment in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, youth
labor markets, and family structures. The current program has also shown commitment to international cooperation. ILC aided the
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...
(ILO) in developing th
Key Indicators of Labor Market(KILM), a compilation of fundamental measures of labor market conditions.
ILC also provided ''KILM'' with data on hourly compensation.
In 2009, the name of the program was changed from the Division of Foreign Labor Statistics to the International Labor Comparisons Program.
Since 2014, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the government of the United States, U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics, labor economics and ...
has discontinued this program, but
The Conference Board
The Conference Board, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) non-profit business membership and research organization. It counts over 1,000 public and private corporations and other organizations as members, encompassing 60 countries.
Th ...
continues to publish the majority of the data series.
Statistical Reporting
ILC prepares internationally comparable labor indicators that can be used to assess economic and labor market performance of one country relative to that of other countries and to evaluate the competitive position of different countries. The comparisons primarily cover
industrialized countries and increasingly also
developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed Secondary sector of the economy, industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. ...
.
Labor force, employment, and unemployment
ILC produces annual data for
labor force
In macroeconomics, the workforce or labour force is the sum of people either working (i.e., the employed) or looking for work (i.e., the unemployed):
\text = \text + \text
Those neither working in the marketplace nor looking for work are out ...
,
employment
Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...
, and
unemployment
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...
measures in 16 countries.
Monthly and quarterly
seasonally adjusted
Seasonal adjustment or deseasonalization is a statistical method for removing the seasonal component of a time series. It is usually done when wanting to analyse the trend, and cyclical deviations from trend, of a time series independently of the ...
unemployment rates and employment indexes are also available.
Foreign country data are adjusted to the U.S. definitions used by the U.S.
Current Population Survey
The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of about 60,000 U.S. households conducted by the United States Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS uses the data to publish reports early each month called the Em ...
.
Hourly compensation (wages and benefits)
ILC's hourly compensation series presents labor costs adjusted for cross country comparability for 36 countries.
Hourly compensation refers to employers’ total expenditure on labor per hour worked, and includes
wages
A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', '' prevailing wage'', and ''yearly bonuses,'' and remune ...
and
salaries, direct
benefits, and contributions to
social security
Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...
schemes.
The ILC compensation series covers all employees and production workers in manufacturing and 22 sub-manufacturing industries, such as apparel, motor vehicles, and computer and electronics.
Productivity and unit labor costs
ILC produces internationally comparable data on
productivity
Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proce ...
, calculated as output per hour worked; unit labor costs, calculated as hourly compensation per unit of output; and related measures. The data cover the manufacturing sector and, for selected series, also the whole economy for 19 countries.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita and per hour
ILC's produces internationally comparable data on
Gross Domestic Product per Capita, Gross Domestic Product per Hour, and related measures for 20 countries.
The data are adjusted to U.S. dollars using purchasing power parities (PPPs).
Consumer prices
ILC publishes Harmonized Indexes of Consumer Prices (
HICP
The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) is an indicator of inflation and price stability for the European Central Bank (ECB). It is a consumer price index which is compiled according to a methodology that has been harmonised across EU count ...
) that are internationally comparable
and also compiles
CPI data from national statistical offices. Although the national CPIs presented are not comparable across countries, they are adjusted to the same base year for all countries.
In addition, ILC published an article that analyzed
harmonized indexes of consumer prices.
Research and Special Studies
ILC publishes articles on international subjects in the
Monthly Labor Review
The ''Monthly Labor Review'' (''MLR'') is published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the government o ...
. Topics have included
employment
and compensation in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, compensation in
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, labor markets for youth,
and hours worked. The program publishes an annual chartbook of international labor comparisons.
[{{Cite web, url=https://www.bls.gov/ilc/chartbook.htm, title=International Labor Comparisons (ILC) : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, website=www.bls.gov]
See also
Statistics Portal of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and DevelopmentWorld Bank DataInternational Labour Organization StatisticsGroningen Growth and Development CentreThe Conference Board*
Globalization
Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...
*
National Accounts
National accounts or national account systems (NAS) are the implementation of complete and consistent accounting Scientific technique, techniques for measuring the economic activity of a nation. These include detailed underlying measures that ...
References
Labour economics indices
Bureau of Labor Statistics