Concepts of labour force under utilisation

This report forms part of a research project designed to backstop the practical activities undertaken within the framework of the World Employment Programme, launched by the ILO in 1969. Its primary concern is to examine how some basic concepts such as "employment", "labour force", "unemployment" and "underemployment" that have been developed in connection with the analysis of the situation in the Western industrialised economies can be fruitfully applied for the definition and solution of problems prevailing in the Third World.

The study is conducted in three steps. In the first part, the author endeavours to define the various conditions that concepts in this field must satisfy if they are to be operationally meaningful. The second part examines in the light of the conditions proposed in the first part the various concepts currently used in the field of labour utilisation. The third part of the report suggests an approach that might escape some of the most obvious weaknesses of the presently predominant conceptual apparatus for analysis and points in directions likely to give a more realistic character to employment target setting and the measurement of labour force utilisation.