What counts as a job?

CLC economist Sylvain Schetange and Grant Belchamber, economist with the Australian Council of Trade Unions have authored a new report called "What Counts as a Job?" The authors argue that the “global crisis highlights the  compelling need to set clear and relevant international standards to collect labour statistics and measure labour market trends.” We indicate that this “job falls to the International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS), which is convened by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) every five years in  Geneva.” However, we believe trade unions should raise the issues of the definition of employment, the broad and encompassing measurement of underemployment and underutilization with their governments before the 19th ICLS which will be convened in October this year.