Labor Force Measurement in a Pre-Industrial Economy

Abstract

Statistical series on the labor force are relevant to the formulation of a wide range of public policies and to an understanding of the limits of the capacity of the economy to produce goods and services. More and more governments are becoming aware of the usefulness of these series and are developing labor force statistics, either at periodic censuses or during inter-censal periods. As additional series have been developed, it has become apparent that labor force definitions have more than a single dimension.2 Definitional differences may result in considerable variance in the statistical results of labor force measurement within an economy from one time to another; they may also cause statistical series for two different places to be non-comparable. The statistics lose some of their usefulness when the content of the categories into which the labor force is separated is not held constant or when there are content differentials in the total labor force concepts of two places. The relative degree of unemployment, for example, between two countries cannot be known, unless unemployment comprehends, in both, persons with the same status. In an effort to reduce the area of non-comparability between series for different places, labor force statisticians have been attempting, for some years, through the agencies of the League of Nations, the International Labor Office and the United Nations, to establish standards for labor force measurement.3 The conferences of statisticians convened under the auspices of the international agencies have accepted the labor force concepts currently employed in the United States, and the definitions and measurement techniques employed there are the basis for the recommendations for standards that should apply in all countries.