Labour statistics in south‐eastern Europe: Similarities and differences across national definitions

• Date: 01 September 2016
• Author: Gjergji FILIPI
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ilr.12043
• Published date: 01 September 2016

* This short note is the last piece of work that Gjergji Filipi produced before his sudden

death in December 2015. Mr Filipi was born on 16 April 1977, in Albania. He studied at the Acad-

emy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, where he obtained a PhD in International Business and

Economics, and later at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Washington, DC, where

he received a Postdoctoral Certicate in International Development and Foreign Policy. Mr Filipi

was a well-known and respected member of the international community, involved in many inter-

national and European Union projects on economic development and EU integration. He taught

international nance, microeconomics and macroeconomics at the European University of Tirana,

and held the position of Research Director at the Agenda Institute in Albania. At the time of his

death, Mr Filipi was serving as General Director of the Albanian Statistical Institute, a position he

had held since October 2013. During this period, he developed strong collaboration with the ILO

and deep friendships with ILO colleagues.

Responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles rests solely with their authors, and

publication does not constitute an endorsement by the ILO.

Labour statistics in south-eastern Europe:

Similarities and differences across national denitions

Gjergji Filipi*

Abstract. It is obviously important to harmonize national statistical denitions

of employment, unemployment and inactivity – both for general accuracy and for

international data comparability. This concise overview compares the statistical prac-

tices of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia,

Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey in this respect. While all of these terri-

tories and countries rely on labour force surveys to collect the required data, they

exhibit discrepancies as to the denitions, classication and labour market status

of specic groups, particularly in regard to the statistical category of unemploy-

ment. The paper concludes with a plea for remedying these remaining discrepan-

cies through further harmonization.

Although basic data on employment can be derived from several sources

– e.g. administrative records, labour force surveys and establishment or

enterprise-based surveys – labour force surveys are the main source used to

calculate labour market indicators. A labour force survey is a standard house-

hold-based survey that is conducted by the ofcial statistical institute of each

NOTES AND DEBATES

Copyright © The author 2016

Journal compilation © International Labour Organization 2016

International Labour Review, Vol. 155 (2016), No. 3