In This Chapter

Chapter 12.
Foreign Labor Statistics

Technical References

General
International Labour Office. Current International Recommendations on Labour Statistics, 1988 Edition. Geneva, 1988.
Presents recommendations on standardizing labor statistics, including recommendations on employment and unemployment statistics, statistics of labor costs, wage statistics, consumer price indices, and strikes and lockouts.

Labor force, employment, and unemployment
Chernyshev, Igor. "ILO-Comparable Employment and Unemployment Estimates: A Technical Guide." Geneva, International Labour Office, STAT Working Paper No. 91-3; and Chernyshev, Igor and Lawrence, S. "ILO-Comparable Annual Employment and Unemployment Estimates: Results and Short Methodological Presentation." ILO Bulletin of Labour Statistics, l990-4, pp. IX-XXXIX; and Lawrence, Sophia, "ILO-Comparable Annual Employment and Unemployment Estimates," ILO Bulletin of Labour Statistics, 1994-4, pp. XI-XLVIII.
The Technical Guide presents detailed descriptions of employment and unemployment data and adjustments made to ILO definitions for 26 countries in Eastern and Western Europe, the Far East, and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand). The articles in the Bulletin summarize the ILO program and present the annual average data for 1981 through 1994, including breakdowns by sex and age.

Hussmanns, R., Mehran, F., Verma, V. Surveys of Economically Active Population, Employment, Unemployment, and Underemployment: An ILO Manual on Concepts and Methods. Geneva, International Labour Office, 1990.
Explains concepts and definitions in detail and provides technical guidelines on the application of international standards adopted by the Thirteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians.

Moy, Joyanna and Sorrentino, Constance. "Unemployment, Labor Force Trends, and Layoff Practices in 10 Countries," Monthly Labor Review, December 1981.

Sorrentino, Constance. "International Unemployment Indicators," Monthly Labor Review, August 1995.
For 10 countries, presents international comparisons of seven unemployment indicators, ranging from four indicators narrower than the U-5 conventional rate to two indicators that take into account persons working part time for economic reasons and discouraged workers.

Sorrentino, Constance. "Japan's Low Unemployment: An In-Depth Analysis," Monthly Labor Review, March 1984; and Sara Elder and Constance Sorrentino, "Japan's Low Unemployment: A BLS Update and Revision," Monthly Labor Review, October 1993.
Presents comparisons of U.S. and Japanese unemployment rates including persons working part time for economic reasons and discouraged workers.

Sorrentino, Constance. "The Uses of the European Community Labour Force Surveys for International Unemployment Comparisons," EUROSTAT, Conference on the European Community Labour Force Surveys in the Next Decade. Luxembourg, October 1987. Investigates the uses of the European Community (EC) labor force surveys for purposes of international comparisons of unemployment and provides comparisons of alternative measures of unemployment for the EC countries, the United States, Canada, and Japan.

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Youth Unemployment: An International Perspective, Bulletin 2098, September 1981. Also, Sorrentino, Constance. "Youth Unemployment: An International Perspective," Monthly Labor Review, July 1981.
Examines the labor market experience of youth in the United States and eight other industrial countries from the early 1960s to the late 1970s.

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. International Comparisons of Unemployment, Bulletin 1979, August 1978, and subsequent unpublished country supplements and summaries available upon request.
Provides the conceptual framework and a comprehensive description of the Bureau's work on international unemployment comparisons, describes in detail the methods of adjusting foreign unemployment rates to U.S. concepts, and analyzes various factors contributing to differences in unemployment levels.

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Comparative Labor Force Statistics for Ten Countries. Updates released in the spring and fall of each year.
Presents annual time series from l959 or l960 onward
covering civilian working age population, labor force, employment, unemployment, and related variables.

Productivity and unit labor costs
Dean, Edwin and Sherwood, Mark. "Manufacturing Costs, Productivity, and Competitiveness, 1979-93," Monthly Labor Review, October 1994.
Examines the relationship between output price, input costs, and productivity.

Dean, Edwin; Darrough, Masako; and Neef, Arthur. "Alternative Measures of Capital Inputs for Computation of Multifactor Productivity Growth in Japanese Manufacturing." Charles R. Hulten, ed., Productivity Growth in Japan and the United States. National Bureau of Economic Research, 1990.
Examines and assesses the various data sources and methods available for measuring capital stock in Japanese manufacturing.

Greiner, Mary; Kask, Christopher; and Sparks, Christopher. "Comparative Manufacturing Productivity and Unit Labor Costs," Monthly Labor Review, February 1995.
The most current in a series of articles on comparative trends in labor productivity and unit labor costs.

Hill, T.P. The Measurement of Real Product. Paris, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, February 1971.
A theoretical and empirical analysis of the growth rates for different industries and countries.

Shelton, William C. and Chandler, John H. "Technical Note—International Comparisons of Unit Labor Cost: Concepts and Methods," Monthly Labor Review, May 1963.
Contains a discussion of technical difficulties, including exchange rate adjustments, that analysts must confront when making international comparisons of unit labor costs.

Lysko, Wolodar. "Manufacturing Multifactor Productivity in Three Countries," Monthly Labor Review, July 1995.
A comparative analysis of multifactor productivity trends in the United States, France, and Germany.

Maddison, Angus. "Growth and Slowdown in Advanced Capitalist Economies: Techniques of Quantitative Assessment," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 25, June 1987.
Examines economic growth and labor productivity developments since 1870 in the United States, Japan, and four European countries and factors which help to explain variations in growth rates.

Neef, Arthur. "Comparative Changes in Labor Productivity: United States and Western Europe," Atlantic Economic Conference, Session on Recent Developments in Major Nations. Williamsburg, Virginia, October 13, 1990. Analyzes labor productivity growth in component manufacturing industries in three countries—the United States, France, and Germany—and the labor productivity slowdown each country has experienced since about 1973.

Neef, Arthur. "An International Comparison of Manufacturing Productivity and Unit Labor Cost Trends," Social Science Research Council Conference on International Productivity and Competitiveness. Palo Alto, California, October 28-30, 1988. Analyzes comparative trends in manufacturing labor productivity and unit labor costs in 12 countries and comparative developments in labor productivity in component manufacturing industries in the United States, Japan, and Germany.

van Ark, Bart. "Manufacturing Prices, Productivity, and Labor Costs in Five Economies," Monthly Labor Review, July 1995.
A comparative analysis of manufacturing productivity and unit labor cost levels in the United States, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Hourly compensation costs
Hart, Robert A. The Economics of Non-Wage Labour Costs. London, George Allen & Unwin, 1984.
Discusses components and structure of labor costs and consequences for cyclical behavior of labor markets.

International Labour Office. An Integrated System of Wages Statistics: A Manual on Methods. Geneva, International Labour Office, 1979.
Discusses principal uses of wage statistics and concepts and definitions and outlines the integrated system recommended at the Twelfth International Conference of Labour Statisticians.

Kmitch, Janet; Laboy, Pedro; and Van Damme, Sarah. "International Comparisons of Manufacturing Compensation," Monthly Labor Review, October 1995.
Latest in a series of articles summarizing the analysis of hourly compensation costs for production workers in manufacturing presented in the BLS Reports.

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. International Comparisons of Hourly Compensation Costs for Production Workers in Manufacturing, 1994. BLS Report 893, June 1995.
Latest in a series of BLS Reports issued yearly. Presents
statistics of hourly compensation costs and compensation structure and analysis of recent and long-term trends.

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. International Comparisons of Hourly Compensation Costs for Production Workers in Manufacturing, 1975-94: Supplementary Tables for BLS Report 893. Released yearly as a supplement to the BLS Report.
Presents time series of comparative levels of hourly compensation costs, supplementary data on comparative levels of pay for time worked and hourly direct pay, and structure of compensation for production workers in manufacturing.

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hourly Compensation Costs for Production Workers in Manufacturing, 31 Countries or Areas, 40 Manufacturing Industries, 1975 and 1983-94. Unpublished data made available on request; released yearly.
Presents statistics of hourly compensation costs for production workers in component manufacturing industry groups.

The family
Sorrentino, Constance. "The Changing Family in International Perspective," Monthly Labor Review, March l990.
Analyzes comparative developments in selected demographic, household, and labor force characteristics over 25-30 years in the United States, Canada, Japan, and seven Western European nations.

Real gross domestic product per capita and per employed person
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Purchasing Power Parities and Real Expenditures, 1993; Volume II, GK Results. Paris, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1996.
Methods and results of the 1993 benchmark comparisons for the OECD countries aggregated using the GK method.

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Purchasing Power Parities and Real Expenditures, 1993; Volume I, EKS Results. Paris, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1995.
Methods and results of the 1993 benchmark comparisons for the OECD countries aggregated using the EKS method.

Summers, Robert and Heston, Alan. "The Penn World Table (Mark 5): An Expanded Set of International Comparisons, 1950-1988," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1991.
Extrapolations and estimates of purchasing power parities, comparative prices, and quantity comparisons of gross domestic product per capita for over 100 countries that have been benchmarked to the results of the United Nations International Comparison Program Project.

Union membership
Chang, Clara and Sorrentino, Constance. "Union Membership Statistics in 12 Countries," Monthly Labor Review, December l99l, pp. 46-53.
Summarizes issues relating to international comparisons of union membership and presents statistics adjusted to an employed wage and salary worker basis for selected years.

"Collective Bargaining: Levels and Coverage," Chapter 5 in OECD Employment Outlook, Paris, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, July 1994.
An analysis of collective bargaining coverage and how it differs from rates of unionization in the OECD member countries.

Visser, Jelle. "Trends in Trade Union Membership." Chapter 4 in OECD Employment Outlook. Paris, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, July l991.
An analysis of union membership statistics covering both European and non-European OECD member countries.

Visser, Jelle. European Trade Unions in Figures. Boston, Kluwer Law and Taxation Publishers, l989.
An analysis and compilation of trade union statistics for 10 European countries for the period l913 to l985.

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