Labour Statistician, P4

The position is located in the ILO Department of Statistics (STATISTICS), within the Labour Force Survey (LFS) methodology team. STATISTICS constitutes the core of ILO statistical expertise and activities, which are aimed at ensuring the availability of relevant, timely and reliable labour statistics at both national and international levels. The department advances this objective through three main activities, namely:

• compiling and producing labour statistics, which are disseminated through ILOSTAT,
• setting international standards for labour statistics through the International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS), and
• providing technical cooperation, assistance and training in labour statistics.

In recent years the department has been incrementally developing guidance and tools intended to support countries in the application of latest international statistical standards and good practices on the measurement of work, in particular through labour force surveys. Building on that work the new project, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will have a focus on the topic of engendering statistics on informality. The project will provide inputs to the ongoing review exercise to develop updated international statistical standards on informality, as well as providing evidence to generate new guidance and tools for measurement, integrated in the wider toolset already published.

The work will advance through three overlapping workstreams:

• The development and implementation of a pilot survey testing programme, updating existing approaches to the measurement of informality through labour force surveys and evaluating the outcomes to generate guidance.
• The provision of inputs on an ongoing basis to the existing working group established by the ILO to develop new statistical standards on informality for discussion and adoption at the 21st ICLS in 2023.
• The review of existing approaches to the use of data on informality to inform policy-making and proposal of updated approaches in line with the new measurement approaches generated by the project.

A particular emphasis of the project will be to ensure the gender relevance of the outputs generated, with the intention to ensure future statistics describe more comprehensively gender gaps in the world in work, and capture women’s informal work in particular in adequate detail to support policy making targeted at reducing gender gaps in countries.

The incumbent will be responsible for providing direct technical support to the project “Engendering informality measurement for Labour Force Surveys” and contribute to the expected outcomes. He/she will promote ILO policies in the project related technical areas and other components of the ILO Decent Work Agenda.

The appointee will work under direct supervision of a Senior Statistician of the LFS Methodology Team and liaise closely with other senior statisticians in the unit who are working on related projects. In addition the appointee will co-ordinate with the relevant ILO regional statisticians, in the implementation of national and regional-level activities. As needed he/she will also oversee the work of administrative and other support staff of the project, national officers and any other international and local consultant hired during the course of the project.

1. Responsible for the implementation of technical activities of the project through the provision of timely technical inputs, planning and control in conformity with ILO policies and project strategies, and in accordance with ILO programming guidelines. Evaluate the project’s progress and report to the donor.
2. Contribute to the design and monitoring of project activities leading to increased  productivity, improved quality and effective delivery of project expected outcomes in the assigned technical area. Effectively manage the budget assigned to the project.
3. Develop the testing strategy for the pilot studies to be completed, including both qualitative and quantitative tests, reflecting in particular the need to ensure proper measurement of women’s informal employment. Identify appropriate partner countries for the tests considering the objectives of the testing and the budget available. Develop the technical documents for each stage of testing.
4. Provide technical advice and technical backstopping to project partners in selected countries on the implementation of the tests through both capacity building activities and direct technical support. Identify training needs, develop training materials and organize training workshops to enhance capacity building. Participate as resource person in project capacity-building activities.
5. Develop inputs on an ongoing basis to the working group on statistics of informality to support discussions on the development of new statistical standards on informality, with a particular focus on gender relevant issues.
6. Recruit experts or support staff as necessary to complete the work of the project, including commissioning inputs from external experts as input to the different workstreams. Review and provide feedback on any inputs received and manage the work of any experts or staff engaged.
7. Prepare technical reports as required under the different workstreams on an ongoing basis presenting analysis of findings, lessons learned and recommendations, highlighting in particular the gender relevance of the work and findings. Validate findings and recommendations with external experts including both users and producers. Disseminate outputs generated to all relevant stakeholders.
8. Liaise with key stakeholders in the selected pilot countries to build awareness of the project, build capacity within the countries and ensure successful completion of the project activities. Liaise with other UN agencies as needed to promote implementation of the project activities, promote ILO values and scale-up the project interventions.
9. Represent the project at international, regional and national fora on issues of the assigned technical area.
10. Participate in the production of promotional materials which target policy makers, programme managers and the general public that assist in promoting ILO technical recommendations and standards and enhance ILO visibility.
11. Promote ILO policies in the related technical areas of the project, other fundamental rights at work and the relevant International Labour Standards in collaboration with other Technical/Labour Standards Specialists.
12. Undertake other duties as required.

Advanced university degree with relevant experience in statistics.

At least seven years of relevant professional experience in the design and implementation of national labour force surveys, knowledge of gender mainstreaming in data collection, the measurement and dissemination of statistics on informality, experience with the management of large scale projects and survey testing methodologies, professional experience working at the international level.

Familiarity with ILO policies and procedures including experience working with officials of ministries of labour and/or education would be an advantage.

Excellent command of written and spoken English. Working knowledge of an additional official language (French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian) would be an advantage.

• Demonstrated capacity to provide relevant and effective technical advice on the technical area and related topics.
• Ability to conceptualise, design, plan and implement research work including analysis of complex cross-national practices and data sets.
• Ability to participate effectively in technical missions and decent work teams.
• Ability to guide and coordinate the work of external collaborators, general service staff and young professionals in the area of specialization.
• Ability to formulate new concepts and methodologies.
• Excellent writing skills to draft reports and prepare guidelines relating to programme development and implementation. Ability to provide technical support to senior specialists carrying out research, project formulation and implementation.
• Excellent analytical skills and knowledge of analytical tools, and qualitative and quantitative techniques.
• Good computer skills.
• The ability to work in a multicultural environment and to demonstrate gender-sensitive and non-discriminatory behaviour and attitudes.

Other technical skills

Knowledge of quantitative and qualitative methods for testing survey questions, experience with experimental survey designs, applied knowledge of sampling methods in household surveys, and quantitative analysis of survey data with complex designs; experience with statistical programming languages, preferably STATA and/or SPSS.