'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 history achieve such growth over such a period as that which has been achieved during these 20 years by the whole world", the Report notes.

Overall, this had led to a significant improvement in what the Report describes as "the quality of life". Life expectancy has risen almost everywhere. The improvement is seen most sharply in the low income countries, where life expectancy increased from 42 years in 1960 to 57 years in 1980.

Some countries lagged far behind in overall growth. For 11 countries with a population totalling 89.1 million, income per head declined between 1960 and 1980. And while some States experienced growth in per capita income for their 3 billion people, this has not meant a rise in living standards for all the people in these countries. In many cases, there was highly uneven distribution of income, with large disparities between the well-off and the poverty-stricken.

In general, the Report states, "the great bulk of the population of the world has experienced an increase in income even if it has been smaller than would have been warranted by the growth performance of their countries".

On wages, the Report notes a distinctly different trend in developed countries as compared with developing countries. In most developed countries, real wages continued to rise until a few years ago; in the developing countries, "not only have there been large differences from country to country but also real wages have frequently fallen, sometimes substantially".

Spectre of 1930s?

In the advanced countries, there were approximately 35 million unemployed at the beginning of the year. The report asks the question whether history may be repeating itself, and whether the most affluent States might not again be facing a spectre of unemployment comparable to that of the 1930s.

The report points out, for example, the lack of agreement in world capitals on the underlying causes of the current crisis and the resulting array of measures that have proved ineffective. It poses the question whether the ineffectiveness of the remedies is due to mistakes of diagnosis or to a fundamental change in attitudes to work and to economic values in general.

A joint analysis by countries and organizations on the underlying causes of today's problems in employment would help produce coherent and concerted policies on growth, capital flows and income, in ILO's view.

As the Report makes clear, just about all of the world's economies face difficult problems, regardless of forms of government. The 35 million unemployed in the industrialized Western countries represent about one-tenth of the labour force; this surplus of active workers existed despite the creation in the 20-year span of some 65 million additional jobs. The foremost social problem for the industrialized market economies concerns not only how many persons are out of work, but who those people are; the young, women, unskilled workers and racial minorities tend to be "marginalized" and are more likely than others to face unemployment.

In East European countries, the growth in the labour force and the higher productivity they had counted on did not occur. In these countries, just as in Western market economies, economic and human capacity are underutilized. Better management and planning are crucial if the Eastern European economies are to run more efficiently, the Report states.

Migrants: The Report pinpoints problems in connection with the movement, both legal and illegal, of migrant workers and their families throughout the world. Eight out of ten workers in French construction are North Africans, Portuguese or Spaniards. In Belgium, nearly half the country's coal is mined by foreigners. One-sixth of the automobiles made in the Federal Republic of Germany depend on the labour of Mediterranean migrants.

The adjustments required by these large-scale influxes of people from other cultures are made much more difficult where the movement is clandestine, as it is in huge volume in the United States and many other parts of the world.

Women at Work: The two decades under study saw millions of women entering the labour market--some eagerly, some reluctantly and some through sheer necessity. It could be said that between 1960 and 1980 the profile of the labour force assumed a definite female cast.

At the same time, male labour participation rates declined, sometimes sharply. This applied especially to older working men.

Various factors motivated this female surge into the labour force. Better education and the desire to use it plays a significant role, and with smaller families and mechanized appliances for heavy housekeeping chores, women were freed of the most time-consuming burdens at home. Also, more and more households are being headed by women alone--primarily because of rising divorce rates. Many other women have joined the labour force to help beat inflation and supplement their husbands' eroding incomes.

This first volume of the World Labour Report, with its companion volume, will be a ready reference shelf for use by employers, unions, government officials, students and the general public.