'First work of its kind on work': new ILO reports.

The International Labour Office has published what it calls "the first definitive work of its kind on the world of work".

Volume I of the World Labour Report--covering employment, incomes, social protection and new information technology--became available in February. The second volume, which will look into labour relations, international labour standards, training and conditions of work, will be published later this year.

The aim of the two volumes is to give an overasll picture of recent developments concerning major labour problems in today's world. It is concerned mainly with facts--facts, it states in its preface, "that are known to the specialists, but are no always readily available to the general public".

Introducing the Report, International Labour Organisation (ILO) Director-General Francis Blanchard notes that the word "unemployment" appeared in English less than a century ago.

"If we do not sufficiently appreciate the newness of our conception of work", he goes on, "it is perhaps because we tend to forget the underlying nature of our contemporary civilizations; industrious civizations of know-how, obsessed by the production and distribution of wealth".

The unprecedented changes that mark the modern world, he states, "would not have been possible if wealth-creating work had not been placed at the centre of society's scale of values".

Mr. Blanchard expresses the hope that major research institutes and foundations will now join efforts and back those of the ILO for the purpose of carrying out further inquiries and research.

Rise in Incomes: One of the few encouraging statisitics compiled by the Report is that, on a worldwide basis, the income of the average man, woman or child grew by nearly two thirds between 1960 and 1980--that is, a record 65 per cent rise. But the Report also goes on to show that millions of the world's poorest got the least benefit from this growth, while the industrialized countries prospered at a faster than average rate.

For instance, nations with an average per capita income of $260 in 1980 recorded only a 1.2 per cent increase in per capita income, compared with 3.6 per cent in the industrialized countries of the West. The highest rate was a record 6.3 per cent for oil-exporting countries.

Nevertheless, the Report notes, the median rate of growth in per capita income over the period was about 2.8 per cent--or an increase over the 20-year period of about 65 per cent.

"Rarely, if ever, did any country in...