A ROADMAP FOR THE

DEVELOPMENT OF LABOR
MARKET INFORMATION
SYSTEMS
2.2.3 LMIS IN SELECT COUNTRIES

KJARTAN SORENSEN AND JEAN-MICHEL MAS

A ROADMAP FOR THE
AUGUST 2016

DEVELOPMENT OF LABOR
KJARTAN SORENSON, JEAN-MICHEL MAS
2.2.3 LMIS IN SELECT COUNTRIES

MARKET INFORMATION SYSTEMS

JUNE 2015
SORENSEN AND JEAN-MICHEL MAS
This study was made possible with the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views
of FHI 360, USAID, or the United States Government.
JUNE 2015
KJARTAN SORENSON, JEAN-MICHEL MAS

JUNE 2015

A ROADMAP FOR THE A

SORENSEN AND JEAN-MICHEL MAS
made possible with the generous support of the American people through the United States A
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This report was prepared by the Workforce Connections (WC) project at the request of the African Union (AU)
operating unit, with funding from USAID. The authors would like to express their gratitude to Lara Goldmark, Obed
Diener, Jeffrey Matu and John Lindsay from FHI 360 for their ideas, insights and guidance throughout the research
and writing process. Many thanks also to Oumar Diop, of the Social Affairs Department, Samson Bel-Aube
Nougbodohoue, of the Economic Affairs Department (African Union Commission) and Yacouba Diallo
(International Labour Organization) for sharing their expertise on supporting Labor Market Information Systems
(LMIS) throughout Africa. The authors also wish to warmly thank the following individuals for generously sharing
their experience with LMIS development in their countries: Dominique Habimana, Director, Statistical Methods,
Research and Publication Unit and Mr. James Byiringiro (National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda); Pacifique
Karinda, LMIS Team Lead, Ministry of Public Service and Employment (Rwanda); Antoine Manzi Rutayisire, Director
of Advocacy, Trade and Labor relations, Private Sector Foundation (Rwanda); Vincent Kouete, Head, Department
for economic affairs, Cameroon Inter-Employers' Association (Cameroon) and Dichaba Molobe, Director of Policy
and Advocacy, Botswana Chamber of Commerce (Botswana). The views expressed in this study are those of the
authors.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems i

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................. i
ACRONYMS .................................................................................................................................................. iv
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................. 1
I. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 CONTEXT ............................................................................................................................................. 6
1.2 STRUCTURE ......................................................................................................................................... 8
1.3 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................................. 8
2. RETHINKING LMIS: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR DEVELOPMENT................................................... 10
2.1 UNDERSTANDING LABOR MARKET INFORMATION SYSTEM ............................................................ 10
2.1.1 What is labor market information, analysis and intelligence? .................................................. 10
2.1.2 The data-driven LMIS ................................................................................................................. 12
2.1.3 The service-oriented LMIS ......................................................................................................... 13
2.1.4 The integrated LMIS ................................................................................................................... 14
2.1.5 Putting the system back in LMIS ................................................................................................ 16
2.2 LMIS LANDSCAPE REVIEW ................................................................................................................. 16
2.2.1 The challenge of measuring and comparing LMIS ..................................................................... 16
2.2.2 Key observations from the landscape review ............................................................................ 17
2.2.3 LMIS in select countries ............................................................................................................. 19
2.3 A TYPOLOGY OF LMIS ........................................................................................................................ 31
2.3.1 Determinants of the typology .................................................................................................... 31
2.4 LMIS TYPE 0 ....................................................................................................................................... 34
2.5 LMIS TYPE 2 ....................................................................................................................................... 36
2.6 LMIS TYPE 3 ....................................................................................................................................... 38
3. PATHWAYS FOR IMPROVED LMIS IN AFRICA .......................................................................................... 39
3.1 MAKING LMIS RELEVANT FOR THE EMPLOYER, JOB SEEKER AND POLICY-MAKER .......................... 39
3.2 ANALYSIS OF THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF LMIS IN AFRICA...................................... 40
3.2.1 Donor-led systems with limited sustainability ........................................................................... 41
3.2.2 System ownership troubles ....................................................................................................... 42
3.2.3 Little value and analysis ............................................................................................................. 43
3.2.4 Ineffective dissemination of labor market information............................................................. 45

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems ii

 3.2.5 Low levels of private sector participation .................................................................................. 46
3.2.6 Absence of informal sector labor market information .............................................................. 47
3.3 THE PATH TOWARDS THE INTEGRATED LMIS “TYPE 2” .................................................................... 48
3.3.1 Ensure high-level support to build an integrated knowledge base ........................................... 48
3.3.2 Ensuring high-level support ....................................................................................................... 48
3.3.3 Exploiting existing sources of labor market information ........................................................... 49
3.3.4 Integrating analysis of the economic context and growth trends ............................................. 50
3.3.5 Expanding knowledge of the informal labor market ................................................................. 51
3.3.6 Focusing more on local data ...................................................................................................... 51
3.3.7 Developing new partnerships with research institutions .......................................................... 52
3.3.8 Strengthening private sector intermediation and participation................................................ 52
3.3.9 Embracing open data: preparing for real time LMIS.................................................................. 53
4. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................... 55
4.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ................................................................................................................... 55
4.2 WHAT ROLE FOR THE AFRICAN UNION IN SUPPORTING LMIS DEVELOPMENT? ............................. 56
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................ 57
ANNEX 1: INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR LMIS DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA ......................................... 61
ANNEX 2: OVERVIEW OF LMIS TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE ............................................................................ 65
ANNEX 3: INTERVIEWES .............................................................................................................................. 68

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems iii

ACRONYMS

AAPA Action for Statistical Development in Africa

ACS African Charter of Statistics
AJCC America’s Job Center of CaliforniaSM
AU African Union
AUC African Union Commission
AUP African Union Partnership
BOCCIM Botswana Chamber of Commerce
CAEMU Central African Economic and Monetary Union
DHET Department of Higher Education and Training
DW Decent Work
ECOWAS Economic Community Of West African States
ESA Employment and Support Allowance
EU European Union
GDDS General Data Dissemination System
GTA Global Trade Atlas
HEART/NTA The Human Employment and Resource Training Trust/National Training Agency
ICLS International Conference on Labor Statisticians
ICP-Africa International Comparison Program for Africa
ILO International Labor Organization
IT Information Technology
ITC International Training Centre
JSA Jobseekers Allowance
KILM Key Indicators of the Labor Market
LBO Labor Market Observatory
LMHCFP Labor Market Harmonization and Coordination Framework Project
LMID Labor Market Information Division
LMIP Labor Market Intelligence Partnership
LMIP Labor Market Information Portal
LMIS Labor Market Information Systems
MAPS Marrakech Action Plan for Statistics
MIFOTRA Ministry of Public Service and Labor
NEPA The National Employment Promotion Agency
NINo National Insurance Number
NISR National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda
NOS National Occupational Standards
NSDS National Strategies for the Development of Statistics
NSS National Statistical Systems
ONS Office for National Statistics
REC Regional Economic Communities
RRSF Reference Regional Strategic Framework for Statistical Capacity Building in Africa
SADC Southern African Development Community

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems iv

SHaSA Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa
SOEVT Sub-regional Observatory on Employment and Vocational Training
SSA Statistics South Africa
SSCs Sector Skills Councils
TVET Technical Vocational Education and Training
UC Universal Credit
UN United Nations
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
USAID United States Agency for International Development
WAEMU West African Economic and Monetary Union
WC Workforce Connections

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems v

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This study provides a new lens for understanding labor market information systems (LMIS) and offers
guidance for the focus and sequencing of investments in their development.1 We argue that traditional
technical assistance to support LMIS in Africa has neither succeeded in improving the functioning of
labor markets nor achieved sustainability of the systems themselves, because of a narrow focus on
producing employment statistics at the macro-level. Though such efforts are much-needed, a more
comprehensive and integrated approach will be required in order to address the urgent information
needs of youth and employers, and to realize the African Union’s ambition to elevate the roles of labor
market institutions and LMIS as “important components of national economic development planning”
over the coming five years.2

We illustrate this point through the lens of an LMIS typology, which we have developed based on a
landscape review of selected African LMIS models and international best practice models. The typology
classifies LMIS into three categories according to their capabilities, system participants and outputs:

 Basic systems comprise few public actors and can only generate statistics on the labor market
based on survey data.
 Intermediate systems involve more public actors and integrate services that create value for
some users beyond data production.
 Advanced systems see private sector firms actively contributing to the system - not because
they are obliged to, but because their participation leads to economic gains.

Such a framework permits an incremental, strategic long-term approach to LMIS development, which
should yield more sustainable systems that achieve the purpose for which they are designed. Although
we currently classify most African LMIS as basic systems, a stepped approach to adding actors and
functionality could help these countries move more effectively towards more advanced systems, as
exemplified by those in Australia, Denmark, France, United Kingdom or the United States. Specifically,
interventions that have been missing from past efforts in Africa include facilitating the link between
employment services and statistical sources, investing in more collaborative system governance, and
substantively engaging the private sector.

Labor market information is used throughout the study as an umbrella term depicting all information
about the labor market, including processed and untreated data, including the inputs (labor market
data, soft and hard), the processing (labor market analysis) and the outputs (labor market intelligence).
All countries generate labor market information, either deliberately or indirectly, through various forms
of administrative data such as from running employment services, managing taxes, or providing

1 The African Union (AU) has prioritized strengthening of labor market governance and specifically LMIS, through the 2015
Ouagadougou +10 Declaration and Plan of Action on Employment, Poverty Eradication and Inclusive Development.
2 See « First Five-Year Priority Programme on Employment, Poverty Eradication, and Inclusive Development (2015-19), » African

Union Specialized Technical Committee on Social Development, Labor, and Employment.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 1

education. The question, then, is at what point labor market information should be considered part of
an integrated system.

Figure 1. Components of labor market information

Depending on its applicability, labor market information can be either (1) intervention-oriented
(catering to decision/policy makers), (2) observation-oriented (for socio-economic research), (3)
demand-oriented (for employers to improve their ability to hire efficiently or the capacity of their
human resources), or (4) supply-oriented (enabling youth and other workers to improve their standing
in the labor market). A comprehensive LMIS should contain all 4 types of labor market information so
that it helps workers, employers, policy-makers and researchers. In practice, however, only the most
advanced LMIS manage to do so.

From our landscape review of various country systems in Africa and elsewhere, we observe that systems
are generally conceived to fulfill one of the two following core set of functions:

1. Generate descriptive data on the labor market: we call this type of system the data-driven LMIS.
Their main purpose is to produce information (i.e. statistics) describing the situations that
prevail in the labor market. Such systems are especially useful for policy makers and for
designing interventions aimed at improving the situation in, or the functioning of, the labor
market.
2. Provide labor market services: we refer to these type of systems as service-oriented LMIS. They
are designed to provide information to youth and workers, employers (and labor market
intermediaries) to empower them to improve their work situation or their labor force,
respectively.

In Africa, the evidence shows that LMIS have been overwhelmingly conceived as data-driven. Less raw
forms of information, such as qualitative data have not been prioritized. Yet effective policy
interventions should rely as much, or more, on qualitative assessments as on quantitative data.

We demonstrate that a LMIS can only succeed in improving the functioning of the labor market if both
data generation and service delivery functions are deliberately considered integrated parts of a
comprehensive LMIS. Without good capacity to generate reliable descriptive information on the labor
market, the services and programs deployed by governments will not be properly adapted to the

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 2

characteristics and dynamics of the labor market since analysis and subsequent intelligence is
incomplete. Conversely, the data generation function of a LMIS will fall short if the LMIS does not
harness the information that is generated by the management of employment services.

Our integrated vision of LMIS rests on a definition of LMIS that emphasizes the institutional
arrangements underpinning the information flows between key stakeholders (including the users of the
information) instead of the data or computerized linkages that are outputs or tools. This viewpoint
recognizes that all countries have degrees of capacity to generate and collect labor market information
and that the question, therefore, should not focus on how well equipped countries are, but rather how
they are organized.

A landscape review of the LMIS of Australia, Botswana, Cameroon, Denmark, France, Jamaica, Rwanda,
South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States (California) yielded the following key observations
from advanced systems:

1. LMIS are composed of several, most often interconnected, subsidiary information systems;
2. Public interfaces of subsidiary systems are tailored to different types of users (youth and
workers, employers, intermediaries, students, policy-makers, researchers);
3. LMIS all contain a well-developed public job matching component;
4. Labor market information is detailed at the local level; and
5. Effective partnerships underpin the governance of LMIS.

To illuminate pathways to developing more advanced systems which possess the aforementioned
characteristics, we define a typology in which the performance of systems are functions of (1) the
number of interactions between entities that contribute to, and benefit from the systems (the more
entities, the more likely links will exist or be created), (2) the outputs of the system (evaluating the
extent to which the systems are able to provide employment services as well as data) and (3) the
effective contribution of the private sector (signaling that the LMIS is capable of contributing to
economic opportunity, determining system sustainability). The typology allows us to classify countries'
LMIS into 3 types:

Table 1. LMIS typology according to actors and functionality

Data and
Actors Data only
services

Public
LMIS Type 1 LMIS Type 2
actors only

Public and
private N/A LMIS Type 3
actors

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 3

LMIS Type 1 is a basic LMIS comprising public actors and generating data only. As it contains no service
and tools, it provides little value added for end users (i.e. employers or employees).

LMIS Type 2 is an intermediate LMIS comprising only public actors but which aims, on top of data
production, to propose services that create value for the end user (such as job matching services).

LMIS Type 3 is an advanced LMIS whose features are similar to those of type 2, but whose value
generating capacity is such that private actors become effective participating entities since they find an
economic advantage of being part of the system.

Figure 2. LMIS Type 3 (Advanced)

Currently, the African LMIS surveyed fall into LMIS type 1. Despite promising trends in improving the
quality of macro-level data, they do not succeed in bringing tangible value to policy makers, employers
and employees, and their governance structures remain largely unsustainable and dependent on donor
support. The main weaknesses include:

 Narrow institutional support, as LMIS ownership has been confined to countries’ statistical
institutions;
 Focus on generation of broad, macro-level data instead of providing information useful for
employers and workers (e.g. on skills supply, employment opportunities or career options);

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 4

  Exclusion of the private sector from effectively taking part in the governance and the formation
of new information; and
 Failure to address the informal sector even though it comprises the vast majority of the labor
force.

Transforming basic, data-oriented LMIS to integrated, advanced systems (i.e. from type 1 to 3) will
require support at the highest level of government for a broader vision to deepen collaboration across
ministries and sectors to share information that benefits employers and workers. Thus, an overarching
recommendation at the country level is to develop new institutional arrangements that embed LMIS
planning and management in the national economic development planning process.

More specifically, we offer a range of practical recommendations at the country level that, if
implemented, would bring immediate value on their own while moving countries closer to a Type 3
LMIS, all the while contributing to the improvement of the enabling environment for integrated LMIS
development. These include:

 Exploiting existing, untapped sources of labor market information: administrative information

from a range of institutions provides a wealth of hard and soft data.
 Integrating existing analysis of the economic context, competitiveness, and growth trends:
determining what skills are in demand or oversupplied, what sectors grow or show promise.
 Expanding understanding of the informal labor market: a wealth of qualitative and quantitative
information could be generated by working closely with actors interacting with businesses and
workers in the informal economy.
 Focusing more on local labor market data: local information holds greater relevance for both
workers and employers. Focusing on a few local assessments allows for more insightful analysis
in addition to aggregate macro-level data.
 Developing new partnerships with research institutions and universities to improve cost-
effectiveness and governance.
 Strengthening and linking to private sector intermediation services, which have been much
more successful in the African countries surveyed than public ones.
 Embracing open data: real time LMIS and other technological advancements show great
promise in terms of extracting and analyzing existing data from a variety of administrative
sources, at a relatively low cost.

The African Union (AU) and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) can play a catalytic role in
accelerating the transformation to type 3 national systems. First, by deepening cross-sectoral
collaboration on LMIS at the AU and REC levels, particularly among employment and economic
development stakeholders. Second, by encouraging member states to adopt a new vision for an
integrated approach to LMIS. The AU should consider the relevance of the typology we have proposed
for the purpose of benchmarking (using new standards developed to reflect the new vision for LMIS),
and monitoring the development of national LMIS in Africa over the coming five years.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 5

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 CONTEXT

This study provides a new lens for understanding Labor Market Information Systems (LMIS) and offers
guidance for the focus and sequencing of investments in their development. We argue that traditional
technical assistance to support LMIS in Africa has neither succeeded in improving the functioning of
labor markets nor achieved sustainability of the systems themselves, because of a narrow focus on
producing employment statistics at the macro-level rather than on informing employers and workers.
This state of affairs is largely due to a definition problem: what are LMIS supposed to be and do?

This point is illustrated by viewing LMIS through the lens of a typology that classifies LMIS according to
system participants and outputs. A basic LMIS system comprises few public actors and can only generate
statistics on the labor market. Intermediate systems involve more public actors and integrate services
that create value for some users beyond data production. The most advanced type of LMIS sees private
sector firms actively contributing to the system - not because they are obliged to, but because their
participation leads to economic gains.

These three categories permit an incremental approach to LMIS development, which should yield more
sustainable systems that achieve the purpose for which they are designed. Although we classify most
African LMIS in the basic category, a “step” approach to adding actors and functionality could help these
countries move more effectively towards the types of advanced systems that we identify in Australia,
Denmark, France, United Kingdom or the United States. Specifically, interventions that have been
missing from past efforts include facilitating the link between employment services and statistical
sources, and investing in more collaborative system governance.

The challenges of improving labor markets are stark, especially so in Africa (see Box 1). Unemployment,
hitting the young and women the hardest, is an ever-increasing worry for governments struggling to
establish enabling environments for the private sector to grow and create jobs. The demographic
transition that has started in most of the continent's countries presents itself as a tremendous
opportunity to sustain and accelerate the current growth dynamic of the African continent. It also poses
an enormous challenge to meet the exponential rise in the demand for jobs, on the one hand, and for
skilled workers, on the other. Support for LMIS development has been motivated by the search for
solutions to these labor market realities.

The pathways for better LMIS we identify hold important implications for improving employment
realities in Africa. Better labor market information helps policy makers craft more adapted and
responsive policies and interventions thanks to signals, evidence-based analysis and evaluation. It
enables students and workers to make wiser career moves through facilitated access to job openings,
trainings, education and other skill development options. It improves employers' growth prospects
because they can more easily voice their skills needs and identify ways to rapidly meet them.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 6

To date, technical assistance to African countries' LMIS development efforts has centered on (i)
establishing common goals for the development of LMIS; (ii) building the statistical and quantitative
production capacity; and (iii) developing knowledge sharing infrastructure on the labor market. While
these activities have addressed the ability of countries to produce statistics on the labor market, they
have not provided meaningful support to employers and workers and, as a result, have fallen short of
improving the functioning of labor markets.

The African Union (AU), for instance, together with the International Labor Organization (ILO), has for
several years now promoted LMIS. In 2015, African Heads of State reasserted their commitment,
through the Ouagadougou +10 Declaration and Plan of Action on Employment, Poverty Eradication and
Inclusive Development, to labor market governance and specifically LMIS as important instruments for
poverty reduction and employment.3 High-level support has made it possible to define the minimal
perimeter that LMIS should effectively cover, most recently through the AU's Labor Market
Harmonization and Coordination Framework Project in Africa (2012-2016), and to formalize a series of
recommendations regarding implementation methodology as well as the list of indicators to be
produced. Other international and bilateral organizations have supported regional capacity building
programs such as AfriStat's LMIS program or national efforts like the implementation of labor force or
establishment surveys.4

Box I. Employment challenges in Africa

Youth between 15-34 years account for 40% of the working age population in Africa (Blumel, 2014).
Every year for the next decade, 11 million young people are expected to enter Africa’s labor market,
according to the World Bank (World Bank, 2014).

Youth are estimated to have an unemployment rate almost three times that of adults. The number of
youth that are neither employed, nor in education or training have reached historic highs (Blumel,
2014).

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the official youth unemployment rate has
been rising since 2010, and is estimated to be at 12.8% by 2018 (Blumel, 2014).

Official unemployment rates undervalue and cannot capture the realities of the labor market in
Africa where, on average, more than 80% of workers hold informal jobs (African Development Bank,
2013) and where an interplay of economic, social and cultural factors limit equality of opportunity of
men and women to work.

Most informal employees are women and youth (African Development Bank, 2013); 85% of women
in Sub-Saharan Africa work in low-paid, vulnerable or undervalued jobs (UN Women, 2015).

3 See Annex 1 for more details on the institutional framework for LMIS development in Africa
4 See Annex 2 for an overview of technical assistance programs supporting LMIS

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 7

1.2 STRUCTURE

This study offers a new framework for understanding, analyzing and categorizing LMIS, thereby allowing
for the identification of clearly sequenced and focused actions for LMIS development.

Section 2 first looks at current definitions and approaches to LMIS by investigating the literature and
conducting a landscape review of national systems in the developed and developing world. Here, we
distance ourselves from what has been an exceedingly data- and technology-centric approach to
embrace a more systemic and service-oriented vision for LMIS development. We argue that LMIS’
contributions to better labor markets could be enhanced if decision makers and practitioners adopt a
wider definition of LMIS, where statistics on the labor market are integrated with the delivery of services
for workers and employers.

In the second part of Section 2, building on our call for more integrated LMIS, we propose a typology in
which the performance of systems are functions of the nature and number of public and private actors
that contribute to and benefit from the systems. We define and provide examples for systems classified
as basic, intermediate or advance

Section 3 lays out the key problems to be tackled through an evaluation of LMIS in Africa using this new
typology as the lens. Pathways to address the challenges are proposed, based on an incremental and
focused approach to the development of LMIS.

Section 4 concludes the study by summarizing our findings and formulating recommendations as to how
the African Union, international organizations and regional economic communities can support the
development of LMIS across the continent.

Annexes 1 and 2 explain the current institutional instruments and support programs for LMIS
development in Africa. We refer to these annexes throughout the study to support our analysis and
recommendations.

1.3 METHODOLOGY

This study was produced at the request of the AU under the auspice of the African Union Partnership
(AUP) aimed at strengthening economic empowerment for youth and women with a focus on education
and skills development, trade and market access, and economic governance and social protection. The
study seeks to define what can be done at AU and member state level to ensure that LMIS become
"important components of national economic development planning in member states of the African
Union" and improve the functioning of labor markets.

In order to gain additional information and perspective about the level of cooperation between LMIS
actors and the effectiveness of the systems in improving policy and labor outcomes, we have reviewed
the systems in place in Botswana, Cameroon, Rwanda and South Africa. This country selection, made
with the African Union Commission (AUC), is based on an attempt to be as geographically representative
as possible given the study's scope, and on the knowledge that each of these countries has, in one way

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 8

or another, pushed for LMIS development. These four country systems are contrasted with the LMIS of
Australia, Denmark, France, Jamaica, United Kingdom and one in the United States (California) chosen,
in part, because of their prominence in the literature as best in class. The comparative review is
intended as an illustration of the broad spectrum of systems' characteristics and functions that exist in
Africa and globally and is not meant to be comprehensive. Each system evaluation is summarized in the
landscape review table of LMIS in Section 2 and includes each system’s core components and
characteristics.

To complement this desk review of country systems, a series of semi-structured interviews were held
with key LMIS representatives and stakeholders in Cameroon, Rwanda and Botswana. Interviewees
were the African Union's LMIS focal points and representatives from leading private sector associations.
Complementing the landscape review, the interviews allowed for more detailed assessments of the
state of LMIS in each country, and supported the identification of activities to support LMIS
development (Sections 3 and 4).

LMIS in Africa need a different development trajectory if the goal is to provide more employment and
inclusive growth. The typology presented below was developed to offer explanations for why systems
do not improve, and what can be done to raise their effectiveness. The resulting classification of systems
according to output and number of participants allows us to identify a more effective development path
for LMIS in Africa.

Instead of limiting their efforts to the production of employment statistics, countries with basic systems
should begin by investing in the institutional arrangements to gain the support and effective
participation of a broader network of ministries to improve the availability, dissemination and use of
labor market information. Our recommendations are formulated as steps countries, and the African
Union at regional level, can take to implement this integrated vision of LMIS

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 9

2. RETHINKING LMIS: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR DEVELOPMENT
2.1 UNDERSTANDING LABOR MARKET INFORMATION SYSTEM

2.1.1 What is labor market information, analysis and intelligence?

The labor market, like other markets, can be described from the supply or demand side. On the demand
side, we find all types of employers who need, or might need, workers and their services. On the supply
side, we find the workforce composed of workers, actual or potential, offering labor services in
exchange for compensation.

All of the information about the labor market, which includes the structure, characteristics and
dynamics of the labor supply (e.g. its composition, skills or qualifications), and of labor demand
(employer locations, industry, sectors, skills needs, types of jobs being offered, hiring practices, etc.), is
known as labor market information. Labor market information also encompasses information on the
intermediaries, or lack thereof, facilitating or obstructing the attainment of a labor equilibrium; in other
words, situations where demand meets supply. It can take the form of "hard" data (i.e. quantitative
data), which, once processed, becomes statistics. It can also take the form of "soft" data (i.e. qualitative
data) on the functioning and characteristics of both sides of the labor market.

Various data related to the labor market are the inputs needed to create labor market Intelligence.
When raw forms of labor market data undergo treatment and interpretation, they become useful in
"creating the understanding of what is happening in the labor market or in employment and any
associated implications for employers, individuals, intermediaries and government" (UK Commission for
Employment and Skills, 2014, p. 9). We refer to the process of transforming labor market data (both soft
and hard) into labor market intelligence as labor market analysis, which according to Sparreboom and
Powell (Sparreboom & Powell, 2009, p. 4), can also be said to be the "examination of the best
information available regarding the state of the labor market".

As represented in Figure 1 below, labor market information is used throughout the study as an umbrella
term depicting all information about the labor market, including processed and untreated data,
including the inputs (labor market data, soft and hard), the processing (labor market analysis) and the
outputs (labor market intelligence).

Figure 1.Component of labor market information

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 10

All countries generate labor market information, either deliberately or indirectly, through various forms
of administrative data that stem from running employment services, or managing taxes or the
educational system. The question becomes when we can begin considering labor market information
part of a system.

Depending on its applicability, labor market information has four main purposes5:

1. Intervention-oriented information caters to decision makers and other labor market

stakeholders who work to improve the functioning of labor markets (i.e. removing obstacles to
employment, distortions, inequities and undesirable phenomena such as lower pay or higher
unemployment for certain groups). In Australia, for example, the "Employment Research and
Statistics" platform helps policy makers access comprehensive labor market intelligence
(research, analysis and statistics), down to the most local level, in the areas of skill shortages,
recruitment trends, labor and skills needs and industry and employment signals.

2. Observation-oriented information serves a general purpose for overall research on the labor
market to contribute to the study of the economy and society. JobEffekter ("Job effectiveness"),
a Danish platform dedicated for research, is one such place where users can find studies and
research (public or private) on the labor market. One of its key functionalities enables
comparison and analysis of the effectiveness of a wide range of labor market policies.

3. Demand-oriented information improves employers’ ability to hire efficiently, to become more

successful in optimizing new hires or to improve the capacity of their human resources.
"Universal JobMatch" (UK), "Pôle Emploi" (France), "America's Job Center California" (California),
"JobActive" (Australia) or "Jobnet" (Denmark) are all widely used job matching platforms by
companies to find and hire workers, classified by detailed occupations and using advanced
search functions. Similar publicly run job matching systems in Africa are few, and rudimentary at
best (Tanzania, Botswana). Throughout the continent, privately run job matching platforms
contain more recent job postings and worker profiles.6

4. Supply-oriented information is used by workers to improve their standing in the labor market
(e.g. find work, improve their skills). While job-matching systems cater as much to the supply
side as the demand side, France's "Compte Personnel Formation" ("My Personal Training
Account"), or Australia's "MyFuture", accompanies the student and worker throughout his/her
working life, offers trainings and tracks certifications received. Each account interacts with
online career counseling and training services.

5Adapted from the Government of Yukon's classification (Government of Yukon, 2010, p. 10)
6 Examples of the private intermediation portals include for Rwanda: tohoza.com; jobinrwanda.com; umurimo.com, for
Cameroon: adrh-apave.com; camerjob.com, everjobs.cm

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 11

A comprehensive LMIS should contain all 4 types of labor market information so that it helps workers,
employers, policy-makers and researchers. In practice, however, only the most advanced LMIS are
designed or manage to cater that widely.

From our landscape of various country systems (Section 2.2), we observe that systems are generally
conceived to fulfill one of the two following core set of functions:

1. Provide descriptive data on the labor market: we call this type of system the data-driven LMIS;
they are mostly intervention and observation oriented.
2. Provide labor market services: we refer to these type of systems as service-oriented LMIS; they
are demand and supply oriented.

Defining LMIS is therefore best done by examining their functionalities in order to overcome the
problem of competing visions of LMIS that exist in the literature.

2.1.2 The data-driven LMIS

The main purpose of a data-driven LMIS is to produce information describing the situations that prevail
in the labor market. Such systems are especially useful for policy makers and for designing interventions
aimed at improving the situation in, or the functioning of, the labor market. They build on a set of
statistical indicators such as macro-level labor market performance indicators including unemployment
rates, new job formation by sector, information on labor market demographics, etc. They offer
longitudinal statistics providing insights into evolutions and trends. Their main sources of labor market
information are surveys, i.e. household surveys (supply side), manpower establishment surveys
(demand side) and labor force (supply and demand). The premise that drives such systems is that quality
data improves analysis, which in turn creates better intelligence that should translate into more
meaningful policy interventions on the job market.

Data-driven LMIS is the vision of LMIS that has concentrated most technical assistance provided to
African countries in this field. Indeed, AU Member States, when turning to international partners, have
been requesting help to develop their statistical systems in order to produce the eighteen "Key
Indicators of the Labor Market" (KILM), defined by the ILO as a minimal list of labor market indicators
designed, in part, to measure progress towards achieving "Decent Work" for all (International Labour
Organization, 2011). (Interview ILO, 04/20/2016). This reflects an understanding that the KILM initiative
represents a de facto Roadmap for LMIS. In addition to the ILO’s decent work agenda, another driver of
the data-driven approach has been the tendency, at a conceptual level, to tightly link LMIS development
with issues related to IT development and data management. This may be due in part to the
conventional association of the term “system” with information technology (IT) applications.

This focus on statistical data and IT systems has shaped the organizational arrangements put in place to
manage LMIS. Overall in Africa, statistical departments have been given the responsibility of managing
LMIS, be it the office in charge of national statistics, or the statistical department within the Ministry of
Labor (see Section 3).

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 12

As a result, participants of national and international conferences, seminars and other training on LMIS
development tend to be statisticians or IT staff. In Rwanda, the officially designated LMIS team is
comprised of four IT engineers (one of whom is the manager) and only one labor economist (Interview
LMIS, 05/10/2015). The trainings offered by the ILO usually focus on Labor Market Indicators, i.e., the
statistical aspects of LMIS. .7

Consequently, LMIS tend to be thought of and conceived as tools meant to produce "hard" data, while
less raw forms of information, such as qualitative data have less chances of being prioritized. This
contributes to the gap between the data available and the data needed for overcoming barriers to
employment. Arguably, effective policy interventions should rely as much, or more, on qualitative
assessments as on quantitative data.

2.1.3 The service-oriented LMIS

The service-oriented LMIS centers on providing information to workers, employers (and labor market
intermediaries) to enhance their efforts to improve their work situation or their labor force,
respectively. The rationale underpinning this type of LMIS is that mismatching between demand and
supply is largely due to imperfect information leading to inefficient allocations of demand and supply of
labor. In a recent manual in which the German International Cooperation (GIZ) equates LMIS with "labor
intermediation services", LMIS primary objective is to reduce "the job search costs for both workers and
employers by improving the information flow between the labor demand and supply sides concerning
available jobs and skills needed." In this model, the statistical function is only secondary. An LMIS is
designed to "improve job placement and matching
, to provide information on professions and training,

to help people to develop a job profile and to develop skills for searching and applying for jobs, 
to
collect and evaluate information necessary for governments to be able to formulate labor market policy
and to identify focus groups." (Woltermann, 2012, p. 13)

Service-oriented LMIS will generally include access to job-market databases proposing to match
employers with potential employees. They track information on vacancies, and offer employers access
to job seeker profiles classified according to skills, experience and location. Australia's "JobActive",
France's "Pôle emploi", Denmark's "JobNet" and the UK's "Universal JobMatch" (see Section 2.2) are
examples of advanced, public, widely used job-market databases. These platforms usually also contain
some information on vocational training and qualification programs, job application advice, although the
quality and, hence, usefulness of these will vary. But for more in-depth career advice, some countries

7 An example from a recent ILO training brochure:“The main objective of the Academy is to enhance ILO member countries’
capacity to collect, process, disseminate, analyze, and interpret labor market information that is aligned with the latest
international statistical standards, in particular, the 19th ICLS Resolution concerning statistics of work, employment and labor
underutilization, for the formulation of evidence-based policies in support of decent work.... The target audience of the Academy
includes: Labor Statisticians from national statistical offices, Employment and development policy analysts from national
statistical offices, government ministries, research and academic institutions, labor observatories, international organizations and
donor organizations... The Academy targets labor statisticians, analysts and senior managers of statistical institutions" - Excerpt
from a recent brochure on LMIS training organized in November 2015 (International Training Centre of the International Labor
Organization, 2015).

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 13

have developed online career platforms containing information on professions and related vocational
training, university studies, and qualification courses for people who seek to change jobs or obtain a
promotion. Some platforms are designed to speak specifically to youth such as Australia's "MyFuture" or
France's "Orientation pour Tous" ("Orientation for All"). Such online services are complements to face to
face counseling, helping develop a job profile according to an individual's skills, helping to find the right
qualification and training courses and helping in the job search process. These services may be
embedded in countries' employment centers or career centers, or within training centers.
Intermediaries use systems to inform users. These actors, being the meeting point between the labor
supply and demand on one side and institutions on the other, are privileged interfaces where
quantitative information may be gathered, and important quantitative observations can be made.

2.1.4 The integrated LMIS

Despite employment services' importance to promote employment and to improve the functioning of
the labor market, in the African countries we surveyed, service-oriented LMIS are either non-existent or
not really operational. Botswana, for example, has made an attempt with its Labor Market Observatory,
but its job matching registration function is not working. These countries have instead, as we previously
demonstrated, focused on developing data-driven LMIS.

Figure 2. Separated systems

Nonetheless, this concentration of efforts has not led to comprehensive, sustainable, data-driven LMIS
systems that are able to provide precise labor market intelligence as we see in Australia, Denmark,
France, UK and US (see Section 3). We have found that the discourse on LMIS in studies and reports
supports mostly data-driven systems, imagining them as detached from the running of employment
services (see Figure 2).

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 14

A too heavy focus on survey data has led to insufficient acknowledgment of linkages with other LMIS
actors involved in improving the labor market and providing services to its actors (employment centers,
municipalities, schools, universities, training centers, economic development departments, tax
authorities, social security, etc.).

A wealth of information sources and flows namely linked to the delivery of various employment services
such as job matching and counseling in job centers, social security services and vocational training, have,
as a result, been overlooked. Because of this oversight, there are missed opportunities for achieving
economies of scale (for example through shared systems infrastructure and management), and for
improved analysis of labor market information.

We argue instead that a LMIS can only succeed in improving the functioning of the labor market if, both
data generation and service delivery functions are deliberately considered integrated parts of a
comprehensive LMIS. Without good capacity to generate reliable descriptive information on the labor
market, the services and programs deployed by governments will not be properly adapted to the
characteristics and dynamics of the labor market since analysis and subsequent intelligence is
incomplete. Conversely, the ability to fulfill the data function of a LMIS will fall short if the LMIS does not
harness the information that is generated by the management of employment services.

It is with the constantly revolving information between these two subsidiary systems that the LMIS as a
whole has its best shot at producing labor market intelligence and analysis that allows for the instigation
of a virtuous cycle, wherein good data, policies, and services are interlinked and mutually reinforcing. An
"integrated LMIS" can be illustrated through the diagram below:

Figure 3. An integrated LMIS

Countries with the most successful labor markets have integrated systems. In Australia, for instance,
data generated from running JobActive, namely on vacancies, skills demand, are continuously feeding
into the labor market information portal, the MyFuture site or the JobOutlook platform enabling wider

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 15

analysis and better intelligence. In Singapore, the Economic Development Board coordinates the labor
market information production of the Ministries of Trade and Industry, Manpower, Education and
various other to ensure that skills supply meets the needs of the countries' growth targets (Powell,
2009, p. 21). In Ireland, the tripartite Expert Group on Forecasting Skill Needs (EGFSN) includes the
participation of development agencies and employment authorities, which "means that the skill needs
of development projects can be quickly communicated to the relevant training authorities,” and because
both private companies and employers are represented, “a commercial insight is taken on board"
(Powell, 2009, p. 23-4).

2.1.5 Putting the system back in LMIS

As it should now be clear, we choose not to restrict the concept of LMIS to its computerized linkages:
information systems, data or IT are simply tools that allow for better gathering, processing and
dissemination of labor market information. Instead, we recognize that LMIS are defined by the
information flows between key stakeholders and especially by the consumers and what they do with
their labor market information. Indeed, there is no point collecting data or producing information unless
there is a demand for that information (Sparreboom & Powell, 2009, p. 44).

Therefore, to understand LMIS and evaluate the merits and drawbacks of their design, our emphasis
must be on the system as understood in the discipline of systems thinking, using Donella Meadows
seminal definition, as "a set of things—people, cells, molecules, or whatever—interconnected in such a
way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time... The system, to a large extent, causes
its own behavior" (Meadows, 2008). This definition of a system ensures priority is given to the
examination of all actors involved, actual or potential, over the technical tools of the LMIS. In doing so,
we can imagine systems that produce and organize labor market information for a wider spectrum of
labor market stakeholders. For this reason, we find the definition used by Nicholas Manghozo’s ILO
working paper on LMIS to be the most useful, since it emphasizes system linkages over technical
infrastructure: "the set of institutional arrangements, procedures and mechanisms put in place to
coordinate the collection, processing, storage, retrieval and release of labor market information"
(Mangozho, 2003, p. 14).

All countries have some capacity to generate and collect labor market information, no matter whether
the responsibility is explicitly expressed or whether it befalls the statistics office or another ministerial
department. The question, therefore, is not whether countries are equipped with an LMIS or not, but
rather how the organizational arrangements that surround labor market information can be enhanced
or expanded to achieve the broader purpose of optimizing the functioning of labor markets.

2.2 LMIS LANDSCAPE REVIEW

2.2.1 The challenge of measuring and comparing LMIS

"There is no general blueprint for the one and most effective LMIS", the GIZ notes in its most recent
manual on the subject (Woltermann, 2012, p. 6). ILO's KILM (see Section 2.1.2) could in principle be used
to compare performance between countries, by determining the extent to which countries are able to
produce them. Their availability and accuracy might signal that the statistical system set in place to

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 16

monitor the trends of the labor market is sophisticated and well managed. Yet, comprehensive as they
are, these indicators on the performance of the labor market are not necessarily, we argue, good
proxies for establishing whether the labor market information available is useful for end users. These
type of macro-level indicators have limited applicability for those job seekers and employers who seek
to make more informed decisions in the labor market.

A recent ILO study on LMIS attempted to compare systems across countries (International Labour
Organization, 2013, pp. 38-42). But when referring to the Australian system, the study only considered
its statistical component, while for Jamaica it chose to highlight both the statistical component and the
labor intermediation services (job matching) as key components. Australia has in fact a very advanced
job matching system called JobActive (see next session). It is well integrated with its "Labor Market
Information Portal" which extracts data on vacancies from JobActive.

Such analytical inconsistencies are, as we noted in the previous section, in part related to the problem of
defining the purpose of LMIS. The focus on a tool, rather than on the organization of labor market
information means that analysis is somewhat restricted in scope by the names given to the systems.
Because conceptual problems are commonplace in the country comparisons of systems, we have chosen
not to rely on them, and instead offer our own landscape review of LMIS.

Indeed, in the absence of a universal LMIS archetype and commonly agreed performance benchmarks,
cross-national comparisons are necessary in order to define measures that governments, seeking to
develop the quality, availability and distribution of labor market information, can take to improve their
LMIS.

Given the absence of a universal LMIS archetype and commonly agreed performance benchmarks,
comparing country systems allows for the identification of different measures governments have taken
to develop the quality, availability and distribution of labor market information.

2.2.2 Key observations from the landscape review

The landscape review is presented in table format in Section 2.2.3 below. The findings from the review
are used in our analysis of the performance of LMIS in African countries (Section 3). For each country,
the main components of the LMIS are listed together with a short description, a link on how to access
the public interface and a brief evaluation of the most important system features.8

Key observations of advanced LMIS (Type 3 LMIS - see Section 2.4 for the typology) from the cross
country comparison stand out:

1. LMIS are composed of several, most often interconnected, subsidiary information systems;
2. Public interfaces of subsidiary systems are tailored to different types of users (youth and
workers, employers, intermediaries, students, policy-makers, researchers);
3. LMIS all contain a well-developed public job matching component;

8Our landscape review should not be considered exhaustive and only lists the most significant ones we have found. All countries
system components researched have a public interface and might exclude some institutional arrangements, which have no
dedicated online presence.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 17

 4. Labor market information is detailed at the local level; and
5. Effective partnerships underpin the governance of LMIS.

Subsidiary systems reflect the multiple sources and users of labor market information that exist. System
interfaces are adapted for the type of user, either looking for statistics (a policy maker, researcher), job
vacancies (someone out of work), skilled workers (an employer), or available training services (the
career center counselor). In Denmark, three systems offered by the Ministry of Labor or the Statistics
Institute are intervention and observation oriented, while a fourth one is dedicated to employers and
job seekers (job matching - supply and demand driven). The same multiplicity of systems is found in
Australia, France, the UK and the US.

The ability to provide local level labor market information greatly enhances the usefulness of the LMIS.
Since youth and workers tend to look for jobs locally, in the area where they live, and firms look for skills
where they are based, local level labor market information holds greater relevance for both the worker
and the employer than does aggregated, national information. Furthermore, local data, complemented
by sound qualitative analysis, creates the intelligence required for effective local workforce
development.9 In all advanced economies, LMIS offer users geographical layers of data allowing to zoom
in on progressively more localized data. Australia's Labor Market Information Portal, for instance,
provides a wealth of data on skills, wages per occupation and on the employment prospects in each
occupation, at the national, state, Labor Force Region, Employment Service Area and Statistical Local
Area levels.

We have observed that all systems are built on solid partnerships between several departments (be it
education, statistics or labor), and sometimes the private sector. In the UK, while the centralized
information system on the labor market, the National Online Manpower Information System (NOMIS), is
managed by the National Office for Statistics, it obtains inputs from a wide range of entities including
the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and the Department for work and pensions, all the while
relying on a partnership with Durham University to manage its databases. National systems connect to
regional systems from which they collect information. Navigation between systems is seamless, as they
are often interconnected, one system exploiting the data of the other.

In the African LMIS we have observed (Cameroon, Rwanda, Botswana), while partnerships to support
LMIS may be envisaged on paper, in practice the systems remain the single-handed undertakings of one
institution (see section 3). The exception might prove to be South Africa, which has launched a new
approach to LMIS called the "Labor Market Intelligence Partnership" whose namesake suggests that the
foundation for this new effort be cross-departmental partnerships (Powell & Reddy, Roadmap for the
Implementation of a Skills Planning Unit, 2015).

9For a good example of a detailed local level labor assessment, see the Labor Market Report for the South Yorkshire (UK) region,
2015 (National Careers Service, 2015).

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 18

 2.2.3 LMIS in select countries

COUNTRY/LMIS KEY INSTITUTION DESCRIPTION (AS PER THE WEBSITE) EVALUATION SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL LMIS
TYPE COMPONENTS IN CHARGE
OF THE LMIS

Labor Market Department of The Labor Market Information Portal (LMIP) has Integrated LMIS with several data-driven and service oriented
Information Portal Employment been developed by Department of Employment subsidiary systems that are interconnected. A job posting on the
(lmip.gov.au) as an online resource. It contains up to date JobActive platform for an "office manager" contains:
labor market data to help people understand
their local labor markets. Data on the website (i) detailed information on the position, including salary level and
are available at the national, state, Labor Force job prospects estimates, Google maps job geolocalization, a link
Region, Employment Service Area and Statistical to the private recruiting agency responsible for the posting for
Local Area levels. more details (if applicable);
TYPE 3/ Advanced LMIS

(ii) a link to the JobOutlook platform which presents detailed

Employment Department of The Australian Government undertakes
statistical information on the office manager occupation such as
Research and Employment research and analysis of employment trends
current job prospects (number of workers in this occupancy,
Australia

Statistics across Australia to support government policy

expected number of workers in 2019...); a description of skills
(employment.gov.au development. Employment related research in
required by order of importance (information on this site is
/employment- the areas of skill shortages, recruitment
derived from the US Department of Labor O*NET Database);
research-and- experiences, labor and skills needs and industry
vacancies per region - and facilitated access to these by linking
statistics) and employment trends is available.
back to regional JobActive listings;
(iii) access to MyFuture for access to training courses and case
JobActive Department of Jobactive connects job seekers with employers studies that relate to the occupation.
(jobactive.gov.au) Employment and is delivered by a network of Jobactive
providers in over 1,700 locations across Public interfaces of subsidiary systems are sophisticated (many
Australia. different ways to access and view information - graphics, time
series, geo location), customized to fit the user point of view
(worker, employer, student/family or policy-maker). For example,
JobActive contains step-by-step information on job hiring support
procedures for employers.

JobOutlook Department of Job Outlook is a careers and labor market Local level and industry specific data availability from a large
Advanced LMIS

(joboutlook.gov.au) Employment research information site to help you decide on

Australia

spectrum of sources and departments across governments.

your future career. Use the search options
TYPE 3/

Projections up to 2019 across industries, occupations, states and

below to find a wealth of information covering territories, and regions.
around 350 individual occupations.
Several analysis/ reports available for online reading/download
across systems including industry or vacancy reports.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 19

COUNTRY/LMIS KEY INSTITUTION DESCRIPTION (AS PER THE WEBSITE) EVALUATION SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL LMIS
TYPE COMPONENTS IN CHARGE
OF THE LMIS

MySkills Department of National training and education directory

(myskills.gov.au) Education and Reports are "tagged" according to who they are designed for
Training ("employers" for example)
.
Strong presence of the private sector: many of the job postings
on JobActive emanate from private agencies. MyFuture is
privately managed and partners with several large employers
namely for the apprenticeship program.
MyFuture Education MyFuture is Australia's national online career
(http://myfuture.edu Services Australia information and exploration service.
.au/) Ltd (Privately
managed)

Labor Statistics Statistics Labor Statistics Unit of CSO collects data on Despite its ambitions of offering both data-driven and service-
(http://www.cso.gov Botswana formal sector employment levels, average oriented LMIS, the Botswana LMIS provides only limited data-
TYPE 1/ Basic
Botswana

.bw/index.php/secto earnings and other characteristics of the driven value to employers, workers and policy makers because:
r-statistics/labour) workforce. The unit also compiles and analyses
LMIS

data on approved work permits by industry, (i) The Labor Market Observatory (LBO) and Botswana Statistics
occupation, work experience, qualification, platforms are not updated: LBO contains only statistics up to
citizenship of holder etc. The most important 2009 which are only available in a PDF (excluding search engine
information source for labor measures is the optimization). Botswana statistics offers more data but the latest
national Labor Force Survey (LFS). quarterly labor statistics brief has not been renewed since 2013

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 20

COUNTRY/LMIS KEY INSTITUTION DESCRIPTION (AS PER THE WEBSITE) EVALUATION SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL LMIS
TYPE COMPONENTS IN CHARGE
OF THE LMIS

Labor Market Ministry of The LMIS is an information system is an active and the quarterly overview of work permit holders not since
Observatory Education and labor market policy instruments that collects, 2012;
(botswanalmo.org Skills analyzes, monitors and captures labor
Development, information such as labor indicators data, labor (ii) The LBO ambitions to job match but the registration function
Botswana demand and supply forecasts and any other is not working and the database therefore contains no active CVs
Qualifications labor market data of the labor market. Labor or jobs.
Authority, market information is key to all players; policy
Botswana makers use it for decision-making purposes, (iii) The LBO's database of occupations only contains 15
Examinations students and their parents for informed career occupations such as economists and dentists with limited
Council choices, researchers etc. relevance for the wider labor force. It is also not up to date.

Fonds National de Fonds National The mission of the National Employment Fund is Despite important efforts to propose employment services,
l'Emploi (fnecm.org) de l'Emploi to promote employment in Cameroon, through namely through a network of 10 regional employment offices and
Cameroon
TYPE 1/ Basic

(National labor intermediation between employers and various employment programs, the Cameroon LMIS is not
Employment workers, professional training, entrepreneurship effective at delivering labor market information and services to
LMIS

Fund) promotion, and dissemination of labor market employers, workers and policy-makers since:
information (translated from French).

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 21

COUNTRY/LMIS KEY INSTITUTION DESCRIPTION (AS PER THE WEBSITE) EVALUATION SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL LMIS
TYPE COMPONENTS IN CHARGE
OF THE LMIS

Statistics Cameroon Institut National NA (website links are broken) (i) The number of vacancies on the national intermediation portal,
(statistics- de la Statistique FNE, is very small (46 vacancies on February 13, 2016) and the
cameroon.org/) au Cameroun vacancies are presented in an uninviting format with no
(National systemized information on skill requirements, wages, geographic
Statistics location, etc.
Institute of
Cameroon) (ii) The latest report relating to the labor market found online on
is a household survey from 2014 containing only aggregate
information on employment (http://slmp-550-
104.slc.westdc.net/~stat54/downloads/2015/Premiers_resultats_
ECAM_4_VF.pdf ). The national statistics portal has enduring
technical difficulties which does not allow users to access its
databases.

(iii) There is no user-centric information on the professional

trainings or support programs proposed. For instance,
entrepreneurs cannot find information on FNE on where they
should go to register their business despite the existence of One
Stop Shops for business registration throughout the country.
Job Indsats Department for JobIndsats.dk makes it easy and fast to Integrated LMIS with several data-driven and service oriented
(jobindsats.dk) labor market and obtain an overview of employment policy subsidiary systems that are interconnected. The data-driven LMIS
recruitment, (JobIndsats and employment statistics portals) contain data from
Ministry of Labor and efforts to create jobs for everyone a large variety of sources: municipalities, job centers and other
TYPE 3/ Advanced LMIS

(translated from Danish). state agencies including central business registry, social welfare
and immigration.Time-series can be customized according to
Denmark

many variables (gender, age, regions).

Job Effekter Department for Instrument to find studies and research Service-oriented LMIS: the job matching portal "JobNet" is widely
(jobeffekter.dk) labor market and (public or private) on the labor market. It used with almost 10 million views/month. It contains specially
recruitment, designed interfaces and guides with interactive capabilities for
allows to compare and analyze the
Ministry of Labor youth or low skilled workers that guides the job seeker towards
effectiveness of labor market interventions
relevant jobs. Privately owned jobmatching platforms such as
with the aim of determining which support JobIndex complement the publicly managed JobNet.
mechanism work to improve the
functioning of the labor market (translated
from Danish).
A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 22
COUNTRY/LMIS KEY INSTITUTION DESCRIPTION (AS PER THE WEBSITE) EVALUATION SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL LMIS
TYPE COMPONENTS IN CHARGE
OF THE LMIS

Jobnet (jobnet.dk) Department for Labor intermediation and access to JobEffekter ("Job effectivenes") is a dedicated platform for
labor market and employment services for employers and research and policy-makers: users can find studies and research
recruitment, employees (translated from Danish). (public or private) on the labor market. One of its key
Ministry of Labor functionalities enables comparison and analysis of the
effectiveness of a wide range of labor market policies.
Jobindex private company Jobindex is Denmark biggest job market.
(jobindex.dk) We provide the most comprehensive
overview of vacancies in Denmark.

Employment National The Statistics Office is in charge of

statistics Statistics Office producing a range of employment related
(dst.dk/da/Statistik/e (Statistik statistics including administering the labor
mner/beskaeftigelse) Danmark)
force survey (translated from Danish)

Labor and National Institute Statistics on Labor and Employment compiled Integrated LMIS with several data-driven and service-oriented
Employment for Statistics and by the National Statistics Office (translated from subsidiary systems that are interconnected.
statistics Economic Studies French)
(http://www.insee.fr (Institut National Highly detailed and up to date statistics and projections on the
/fr/themes/theme.as de la Statistique labor market stemming from a large variety of sources (labor
TYPE 3/ Advanced LMIS

p?theme=3) et des Études force survey, census, tax administration, etc.)

Économiques)
The Job matching ("Pôle emploi") system is sophisticated and
The national portal Department for The national portal for employment policy and
France

user-centric. It contains detailed information on vacancies,

for employment Employment, professional training (translated from French)
including salary level and geo-localization. The employer specific
policy and Ministry of Labor
views gives access to almost 7 million CVs which can be accessed
professional training and Vocational
through different ways, one is through the "fiche métier"
(emploi.gouv.fr) Training
(occupational sheet) suggesting a wide range of available profiles
(Ministère du
listed in a brief, user friendly way. The employer can select
Travail, de
profiles to his/her basket and interact with the employment
l’emploi, de la
agency to arrange for interviews. Hiring and training support
formation
mechanisms (such as subsidies) are explained comprehensively.
professionnelle et
du dialogue
sociale)
A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 23
COUNTRY/LMIS KEY INSTITUTION DESCRIPTION (AS PER THE WEBSITE) EVALUATION SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL LMIS
TYPE COMPONENTS IN CHARGE
OF THE LMIS

Compte Personnel Department for The personal training account is a tool meant to Availability of local data down to communal level including
Formation Employment, accompany the worker throughout his/her number of workers per sector. Gender disaggregation is available.
(moncompteformati Ministry of Labor working life. It is linked with online career Geographical visualization of data by region or department
on.gouv.fr) and Vocational counseling and training services. Information is facilitates analysis. Wide availability of detailed analysis of
Training responding to the needs of the market place employment data.
Orientation pour (translated from French)
tous (orientation- France's “Compte Personnel Formation" (my personal training
pour-tous.fr) account) accompanies the student and worker throughout
his/her working life, offers trainings and tracks certifications
Pôle emploi (pole- Pôle emploi (i.e. Pôle emploi receives those that have declared
received. The account interacts with online career counseling and
emploi.fr/) The Employment unemployment. It provides them with social
training services.
TYPE 3/ Advanced LMIS

Centre) benefits. The agency provides advice and

supervises job hunting, as well as providing a
platform to help companies find and hire
workers (wikipedia)
France

travail- Department for Compiles and analyses data on the labor market
emploi.gouv.fr/etude research and (translated from French)
s-recherches- statistics -
statistiques-de,76/ Ministry of Labor
and Vocational
Training

Labor Market Ministry of Labor The national Labor Market Information System Intermediate LMIS containing data-driven and service-oriented
Information System and Social (LMIS) is a job matching facility as well as a systems with some degree of integration reflecting a
TYPE 2/ Intermediate

(lmis.gov.jm) Security database of qualitative and quantitative comprehensive approach to LMIS development and effective
information. The information is collected from a cooperation from public stakeholders. For example, up to date
Jamaica

number of labor market information producers. employment data received from the statistics department is
Combination of current and historical data on exploited and presented in a user-friendly way with several
LMIS

the local economy, population and labor longitudinal data graphs by the National Training Trust's Labor
market. It also includes information on training Market Information Portal (LMIP).
opportunities for the youth, sources of funding
for education, the most frequently advertised Updated labor force survey data ensures regional level
jobs (hottest jobs) and summaries of labor information on employment levels including by sector but more
market research conducted by MLSS.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 24

COUNTRY/LMIS KEY INSTITUTION DESCRIPTION (AS PER THE WEBSITE) EVALUATION SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL LMIS
TYPE COMPONENTS IN CHARGE
OF THE LMIS

Labor Market data Statistical National Statistics on Labor and Employment in-depth information and municipal level information would
(statinja.gov.jm) Institute of improve relevance for decision-makers.
Jamaica
The LMIP lists occupations that are in demand or over supplied.
This is useful for the worker but the functionality would benefit
Labor Market The Human The Labor Market Information Portal (LMIP) is a from more quantitative data and qualitative analysis.
Intelligence Employment and one-stop area where up-to-date labor Market The LMIP's training database allows searching for different types
Department's Labor Resource Information is accessible to enable users to of trainings. Trainings presentations only include contact
TYPE 2/ Intermediate LMIS

Market Information Training Trust, understand labor supply and demand trends. information of the training provider. Information on the content
Portal (lmip.heart- National Training The Portal provides data and information about of training, length, cost, application procedure would have been a
nta.org/) Agency the population, labor force, employment, plus.
(HEART/NTA) unemployment, education, training and other
Jamaica

related data, which are expected to contribute The LMIS contains a job matching service with some recent
in achieving a more efficient labor market. vacancies although the amount of jobs posted appears small,
even when factoring in the size of Jamaica's labor market. Jobs
Career Development National TVET The career development website provides a
can be searched by occupation but the presentation of a vacancy
Jamaica Center wide range of information and services which
is incomplete and the design outdated reducing the usefulness of
(cdjamaica.org) includes career planning and preparation,
the platform.
developing your resume, how to conduct job
interviews, where to find jobs and the overall
Career Development Center ambitions to provide a wide range of
job search process.
services yet it’s content are limited and have not been updated
since 2013.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 25

COUNTRY/LMIS KEY INSTITUTION DESCRIPTION (AS PER THE WEBSITE) EVALUATION SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL LMIS
TYPE COMPONENTS IN CHARGE
OF THE LMIS

Labor Market Ministry of Public The Labor market information system provides Basic data-driven LMIS. Despite a dedicated LMIS platform
Information System Service and Labor quantitative and the qualitative information and and unit located at the Ministry of Labor, the LMIS contains
(lmis.gov.rw) intelligence on the labor market that can assist little data of use to employers, workers and policy-makers.
labor market agents in making informed plans, The LMIS does disseminate various reports relating to the
choices, and decisions related to their business labor market conducted by partner institutions such as
requirements, career planning, education and establishment survey or SME survey but these are only
training offerings, job search, recruitment, labor available for download. No additional analysis is disseminated
policies and workforce investment strategies. on the platform.

Some good efforts to present the information in a graphic user-

TYPE 1/ Basic LMIS

centric way but the platform lacks a modern look and feel.
Rwanda

A labor force survey to be implemented in 2016 should provide

more data on the labor market, also at local level in the future.

No service-orientation of the LMIS: lack of any substantial

information on existing employment services (such as Kigali's
employment center) or trainings. The system presents a
few links to privately run job matching sites. The LMIS unit
maintains a count on the number of vacancies per month.
There is no public job matching system or support scheme to
encourage private job matching.

Labor Market The Department The LMIP is collaboration between government Data-driven LMIS with some (but limited) employment service
South Africa

Intelligence of Higher and a national research consortium that aims to integration. The South African LMIS is currently undergoing
Intermediate

Partnership (LMIP) Education and build a credible institutional mechanism for overhaul through the Labor Market Intelligence Partnership
TYPE 2/

(http://www.lmip. Training (DHET) skills development in South Africa. based on the understanding that its usefulness has been limited
LMIS

org.za/) thus far.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 26

COUNTRY/LMIS KEY INSTITUTION DESCRIPTION (AS PER THE WEBSITE) EVALUATION SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL LMIS
TYPE COMPONENTS IN CHARGE
OF THE LMIS

Labor Market Theme Statistics South The information related to the labor market is The data-driven LMIS platform of Statistics South Africa provides
(statssa.gov.za/?pag Africa gathered, collated and released by “Statistics up to date data (thanks to a regularly updated labor force survey)
e_id=737&id=1) South Africa” (SSA), which is the national on the labor market and access to a quarterly publication
statistical service. SSA also publishes providing labor market intelligence of the employment situation
demographic and macroeconomic statistics. in SA with provincial level data (employment by age, industry,
gender). A survey from 2013 on self-employment provides some
in-depth insight on the informal sector.

ESSA Employment Information available on various employment

The labor department offers online job matching but the platform
(essa.labor.gov.za/ Services of South service including unemployment insurance and
lacks user friendliness. The extent of jobs and CVs available online
EssaOnline/ Africa, counseling
is unknown.
WebBeans/) Department of
Labor

National Online Office for Nomis provides free and easy access to the Integrated LMIS with several data-driven and service-oriented
Manpower National most detailed and up-to-date UK labor market subsidiary systems that are highly interconnected.
Information System Statistics (ONS) statistics from official sources.
(nomisweb.co.uk) The National Online Manpower Information System (NOMIS)
TYPE 3/ Advanced LMIS
United Kingdom

aggregates data from several sources and sub-systems. The

University of Durham through a partnership agreement with the
Office manages it for National Statistics (ONS).
Local data is very detailed (occupation, per industry, gender,
employment projections) and available and easily accessible
Office for National Office for National Statistics on Labor and Employment
down to council and ward level.
Statistics - Theme National
Labor Market Statistics
The private sector is actively involved in detecting skill shortages
and formulating/developing actions to overcome these skill gaps.
Employer-led, Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) produce Sector Skill
Assessments (SSA) involving assessments of sectors to identify
employer’s short, medium and longer term skills needs, to

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 27

COUNTRY/LMIS KEY INSTITUTION DESCRIPTION (AS PER THE WEBSITE) EVALUATION SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL LMIS
TYPE COMPONENTS IN CHARGE
OF THE LMIS

National UK Commission Full database of National Occupational evaluate skills development levels and to define ways to ensure
Occupational for Employment Standards (NOS) are statements of the the needed training.
Standards database and Skills standards of performance individuals must
(http://nos.ukces.org achieve when carrying out functions in the "Universal JobMatch" is the public job matching platform widely
.uk/). Also include workplace, together with specifications of the used by workers to find vacancies, classified by detailed
links to all sector underpinning knowledge and understanding. occupations and using advanced search functions. It obtains
councils in the UK, Access to all sectors skills councils in charge of vacancies namely from a large network of private recruiting
for example : setting the standards for each occupation. companies.
http://www.citb.
co.uk/
StatXplore Department for Stat-Xplore provides a guided way to explore
(https://stat- work and DWP benefit statistics, currently holding data
xplore.dwp.gov.uk pensions relating to Housing Benefit claimants, the
number of National Insurance Number (NINo)
TYPE 3/ Advanced LMIS
United Kingdom

registrants entering the UK from overseas,

Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) and Employment
and Support Allowance (ESA) sanction decisions,
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and
Universal Credit (UC). In future Stat-Xplore will
include data on a wider set of DWP benefits.
Universal Job Match Department for Universal Jobmatch is a free service that enables
(jobsearch.direct.gov work and you to search for and apply for jobs on one of
.uk or pensions the largest job boards in Europe. You do not
gov.uk/jobsearch need to be registered to search for jobs but
setting up a Universal Jobmatch account will
enable you to do much more.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 28

COUNTRY/LMIS KEY INSTITUTION DESCRIPTION (AS PER THE WEBSITE) EVALUATION SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL LMIS
TYPE COMPONENTS IN CHARGE
OF THE LMIS

The National Careers Department for The National Careers Service provides
Service Business, information, advice and guidance to help you
(nationalcareers Innovation and make decisions on learning, training and work
service.direct.gov.uk) Skills opportunities. The service offers confidential
and impartial advice. This is supported by
qualified careers advisers.

https://www.caljobs. Employment The CalJOBSSM system is California’s online Integrated LMIS with several data-driven and service-oriented
ca.gov/vosnet/Defau Development resource to help job seekers and employers subsidiary systems that are highly interconnected.
lt.aspx Department, navigate the state’s workforce services. The
State of enhanced system allows users to easily search
The Labor Market Information portal provides a wide range of data
TYPE 3/ Advanced LMIS

California for jobs, build résumés, access career resources,

and labor market intelligence presented from the perspective of
United States

find qualified candidates for employment, and

gather information on education and training the worker, student, employer or policy maker. It contains local
(California)

programs. level employment data including specifics on sectors and

occupations (wages, vacancies by occupation or geographic area).
America's Job Center California The America’s Job Center of California SM
of California Workforce (AJCC) network links all state and local For workers or students, it provides access to information on
http://www.america Investment workforce services and resources across the trainings, fastest growing occupations, and counseling information
s Board state and country. The AJCC partners in services to improve career prospects, information on how to
jobcenter.ca.gov/ California are the Employment Development obtain licenses to operate for regulated occupations, etc. For
Department, the California Workforce employers, access to compensation surveys are facilitated, to a
Development Board, and 49 Workforce very wide spectrum of detailed labor market information down to
Development Boards that administer the more
county level including such data as commuting patterns. On top of
than 200 job centers statewide.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 29

COUNTRY/LMIS KEY INSTITUTION DESCRIPTION (AS PER THE WEBSITE) EVALUATION SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL LMIS
TYPE COMPONENTS IN CHARGE
OF THE LMIS

Labor Market Employment The Labor Market Information Division (LMID) is all this up to date data, access to projections on skills demand help
Information Division Development the official source for California Labor Market policy-makers and trainers at state to county level.
http://www.labor Department, Information. The LMID promotes California's
marketinfo.edd State of economic health by providing information to
State portals also provide access to a wide range of federal
.ca.gov California help people understand California's economy
and make informed labor market choices. We resources such as myskillsmyfuture.org enabling workers to
collect, analyze, and publish statistical data and explore their different career paths depending on their skillset.
reports on California's labor force, industries, JobMatching is highly developed through a wide range of public
occupations, employment projections, wages and private job matching sites
and other important labor market and economic
data.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 30

2.3 A TYPOLOGY OF LMIS

2.3.1 Determinants of the typology

As stated earlier, LMIS should be seen as a set of institutional arrangements. New institutional actors
may join or leave, contribute or benefit knowingly or indirectly, and share, or not, a common
understanding of the system and of its purpose. This, however, poses a serious challenge to measuring
LMIS performance and potential.

To overcome the latter, we have developed a typology of LMIS, which builds on the definition of LMIS
summarized in the prior section. It aims to offer a framework for understanding and comparing the
actual or potential performance of LMIS and, consequently, offer pathways to improve them.

Any system is composed of entities that interact. A system can therefore be characterized by:

 The number of entities in the system

 The number of interactions between system entities
 The frequency of interactions between system entities

A system can be illustrated as follows through a number of entities interacting with

varying frequency:

Figure 4. Representation of a system

A good indicator of a system's dynamism is to define the number of "links", i.e. the number of
interactions between its entities. By entity we mean an institution, part of a LMIS, which produces
and/or processes and disseminates information and/or services, and sustains at least one interaction -

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 31

which may or may not be computerized - with another entity of the system. As illustrated in the figure
below, the number of actors has an exponential impact on the number of interactions between system
actors. More actors bring more production of information and services. The more entities, the more
likely links will exist or be created.

Figure 5. Number of links as a function of the number of actors

While the number of actors and links does provide us with good information on performance of a LMIS -
information is either shared, processed, disseminated at a large or small scale - it does not tells us much
about the nature and quality of the information.

We therefore propose to classify countries' LMIS according to 2 variables:

1. The first variable relates to the quality of output produced by the system. We have just seen that
LMIS are generally designed to be either mostly data driven or service driven. We argued that LMIS
could be improved by expanding the focus of LMIS so that they better integrate both of these
functions. Doing so makes the systems more interdependent, instigating a virtuous cycle where the
use of better data improves employment services and where information from running the latter
contributes, in turn, to better quantitative and qualitative labor market information. Our first
discriminatory variable is therefore that an LMIS either:
 provides descriptive data on the labor market only (Data Only - D); or
 provides labor market tools and services and descriptive data on the labor market (Data &
Services - DS).

2. The second discriminatory variable of a LMIS in our typology is the effective contribution of
private entities. It relates to the capacity of the LMIS to generate and sustain value generation.
Effective collaboration, i.e. the processing/transformation of labor market information by the

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 32

 private sector (e.g. employers’ associations, trade union organizations, firms, private intermediation
services), is, we argue, a powerful indicator that value is being created within the LMIS. Indeed, the
active presence of the private sector signals that the LMIS is capable of generating or contributing to
profit-making opportunity that is in some way or another deemed beneficial (there would be no
benefit for a private actor to generate data only). Not only is the private sector the main purveyor of
employment in most labor markets, but it is also uniquely positioned to offer insights and solutions
to overcome skill shortages and promote employment.

Thus, we can classify LMIS according to three (3) types:

Data and
Actors Data only
services

Public
LMIS Type 1 LMIS Type 2
actors only

Public and
private N/A LMIS Type 3
actors

LMIS Type 1 is a basic LMIS comprising public actors and generating data only. As it contains no service
and tools, it provides little value added for end users (i.e. employers or employees).

LMIS Type 2 is an intermediate LMIS comprising only public actors but which aims, on top of data
production, to propose services that create value for the end user (such as job matching services).

LMIS Type 3 is an advanced LMIS whose features are similar to type 1's but whose value generating
capacity is such that private actors become effective participating entities since they find an economic
advantage of being part of the system.

In order to understand what shape these three LMIS types may take in practice, an illustration of each
type is useful before a more in-depth exploration of their characteristics.

In an LMIS, entities produce or process information. The entities can either be consumers of labor
market information or users of an employment service. Each contributing entity either produces or
processes information and disseminates its output to benefit either an end beneficiary or another entity
who will in turn process information and disseminate its labor market information further until the
information reaches an end user. In the illustration of a LMIS below, we use a triangle symbol ( ) to
illustrate the centrality of this function. Furthermore, each entity performs either one or both of the
following functions:

 Receiving information from another entity. We use a green arrow

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 33

 to illustrate this relationship.

 Disseminating information. We use a yellow arrow to represent this function.

Following this logic, labor market information can be:

 produced directly by the entity which is illustrated accordingly:

 produced from information received from other entities:

 processed to produce a service:

2.4 LMIS TYPE 0

Using the above representations, a LMIS type 1 could be represented as follows:

Example of LMIS type 1: Botswana, Cameroon, Rwanda

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 34

The LMIS type 1 focuses on running a statistical system, centrally managed by the respective National
Statistics Office and/or the countries labor department. In Rwanda, for instance, the Ministry of Labor
oversees a LMIS unit with data inputs from the National Institute of Statistics (see Rwanda LMIS
website). Similarly, in Cameroon, the Observatory on Employment tasked with LMIS (although some
confusion remains on system ownership), it has been placed under the tutelage of the Ministry of
Employment (Interview with GICAM, 05/14/2015).

These LMIS focus on maintaining a set of labor statistical indicators such as macro-level labor market
performance indicators including unemployment rates, new job formation by sector, information on
labor market demographics, etc. Their main sources of labor market information are surveys, i.e.
household surveys (supply side), manpower establishment surveys (demand side) and labor force
(supply and demand). As such large-scale surveys are complex and costly to implement, they are
therefore not always carried out or updated regularly. In Rwanda, the LMIS relies on smaller scale
manpower and household surveys while the country's first Labor Force Survey is yet to be rolled out
(planned for 2016).

There exists in most countries a wealth of labor market information produced over the years, even
though in surveyed African countries they are mostly of varying quality, and often outdated. Institutions
such as Tax departments, Ministries of Trade and Industry, and SME development generate
administrative data that could be useful for labor market analysis to illuminate policy and other labor
market related decisions (see section 3 for more detailed suggestions on sources of labor market
information).

Similarly, it is important to point out that in countries with Type 1 LMIS, some employment services do
exist yet they are separate or very weakly linked to the data driven LMIS. Social security and
unemployment insurance, vocational training and skills development programs, job counseling,
matching and placement services are some of the services that generally exist under one form or the
other and which also produce a wide range of labor analysis and insights that could be harnessed for the
production of further insights into the trends and signals of the labor market.

Yet, this labor market information is scattered, not catalogued and therefore not analyzed. It is also not
centralized, which lessens access to it. Because the links with other institutions are so weak, a type 1
LMIS cannot fulfill the coordination function to alleviate this problem of widespread, hard to reach labor
market information. Furthermore it falls very short of fulfilling its analysis function, since it does not
benefit from regular access to highly relevant sources.

It is this isolation of the Type 1 system from employment services and other sources of labor market
data that severely constrain its ability to process, generate and disseminate labor market information so
that it can become relevant and useful for other stakeholders of the labor market.

To strengthen a type 1 LMIS, this major shortcoming needs to be addressed. Yet interventions to
improve LMIS have, it seems, mostly focused on raising the availability and quality of data, through (i)
the implementation of larger and more frequent surveys or (ii) the building of the capacity of statistics

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 35

bodies, rather than developing stronger linkages between labor market information sources that would
transform the LMIS into a type 2 LMIS.

2.5 LMIS TYPE 2

A type 2 LMIS' main characteristic is that it is comprised of more public actors actively involved in
processing and sharing labor market information. They are able to uphold stronger links with one
another than in a type 1 LMIS. Some of the actors contributing to the system are providers of
employment and intermediation services such as state-run job matching and career services or
vocational training centers uniquely positioned to share both quantitative and qualitative insights on
service users. The representation below shows that more actors bring about more links, which in turn
increase the likelihood of better data.

Example of a LMIS type 2: South Africa, Jamaica

There is among actors of the type 2 system a shared understanding that interventions in the labor
market are far ranging. They span from raising productivity, improving access to education, increasing
social conditions for workers and security on the job to reducing un- and under employment. These
interventions rely on policies that are implemented across governmental departments, often
collaboratively, and which cannot solely build on information stemming from the country's statistics
department. Each contribution to the improvement of one facet of the labor market, necessarily builds
on an internally led information gathering, processing and decision mechanism. These processes result

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 36

in deliverables (surveys, quantitative assessment contained in reports, articles, surveys), which may
contribute to raising the availability and quality of labor market information in the system if they are
effectively disseminated.

In a Type 2 LMIS, labor market information can therefore be said to stem from multiple sources. Several
national datasets other than just core labor data (i.e. the indicators maintained by the central statistics
office) are utilized to capture the reality of the economy and of the labor market understanding that
LMIS stakeholders are plentiful and generate vast amounts of valuable information. Public sector data
emanating from tax authorities (corporate and individual), social security schemes, business registries,
universities and learning centers, central bank and agencies (investment or export promotion agencies,
regulatory agencies such as telecommunications, health, etc.) are understood by system actors to be
useful labor market information.

In a Type 2 LMIS, the state may maintain job-matching services between employers and employees, or
at least encourage the publication of job announcements though mandatory or optional publication
schemes. The National Employment Promotion Agency (NEPA) overseeing job centers and related
websites and offering counseling and training essentially to optimize job matching are considered a
natural part of LMIS, although the quality and availability of data these services produce can vary
significantly. The LMIS may benefit from more dynamic labor data, which may be collected continuously,
through the operations of the various job-matching services. From this information, the changing
demand and supply trends of labor markets can better be observed.

Containing more actors who share information regularly than a type 1 LMIS, type 2 systems nevertheless
fall short in creating sufficient value for the private sector to take an active part. The private sector's
feeble presence in the system is mostly restricted to being end beneficiaries of employment and
intermediation services or taking part in labor negotiations as employer representatives (employer
associations). While some form of privately run training and employment services exist in most
countries, in a country with a type 2 LMIS, they cannot be said to be a part of to contribute to a profit
oriented value creation process. What's more, private companies do not create or share information
systematically with the government. As the main creator of jobs, low private sector participation is
problematic. Companies are best placed to formulate their needs for skills and to imagine and
implement trainings to raise the level of workers.

The question then becomes how to strengthen type 2 systems so that they can entice (i) the private
provision of employment services and (ii) private sector contribution to the system with labor market
information.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 37

2.6 LMIS TYPE 3

An LMIS type 3 comprises several public and private actors and provides several services. The private
sector contributes to labor market information formation and entertains strong links with public entities
of the system, as illustrated in the figure below:

Example of a LMIS type 3: UK, Ireland, US, Switzerland

A defining characteristic of a Type 3 LMIS is that the private sector constitutes a dynamic network of
actors (employer's association, trade chambers, lobby groups) who are encouraged to share their
insights that are, for instance, collected through firm-based member surveys or analysis of members'
registration data. Type 3 LMIS includes participatory mechanisms where the government formulates
policy based on regular inputs from private sector associations.

In the UK, for instance, the private sector is heavily involved in detecting skill shortages and
formulating/developing actions to overcome these skill gaps. Employer-led, Sector Skills Councils (SSCs)
develop Sector Skill Assessments involving evaluation of sectors to identify employer’s short, medium
and longer term skills needs, to evaluate skills development levels and to define ways to ensure the
needed training (Powell, 2007, p. 132). These high value inputs are systematically legitimized by being

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 38

widely disseminated through official LMIS channels. The government acknowledges that the private
sector is uniquely positioned to overcome information asymmetries and be effective labor
intermediaries.

Within a Type 3 LMIS, private sector participation in LMIS is openly encouraged. In fact, companies who
detect a commercial interest in processing labor market information can thrive. Private and Public
intermediation services co-exist, transmit similar information, to different audiences and offer coverage
over a wide spectrum of the economy, thereby reducing misalignment between demand and supply.

In the US for instance, companies have developed technologies that allow for querying multiple job
posting databases in real time. This capability is useful for the employer or job seeker who can cross
search a wide array of databases. But these companies also sell processed labor market analysis tools
that can extract, monitor and capture important information on trends in vacancies (duration, sector,
skill requirements), and available job profiles (skills availability, age, gender, etc.) for decision-making.
One such company is "Burning Glass" whose product, they claim, "allows users to understand and adapt
to the labor market in real time" by drawing from over 40,000 online sources and scrutinizing, on a daily
basis, over a million job postings (Burning Glass, 2016).

These technologies offer entirely new ways to exploit available information and opportunity for
analytical insight, namely for better employment policies. What is more, they are likely to evolve
provided that the actors of LMIS are able to ensure an enabling environment where there are ample
economic incentives for the private sector to contribute and grow.

Type 3 LMIS are therefore much more sophisticated systems that rely on collaboration from various
level of government and strong public-private trust and cooperation. LMIS may still be centralized but
the NSO or the Employment Department or equivalent play a more coordinating role to ensure
transversal applicability and accessibility of labor market intelligence and analysis. Level Type 3 LMIS is a
departure from a traditional top-down approach of manpower planning, encompassing a participatory
approach to improving the labor market by making labor market information available to all
stakeholders. IT collaboration platforms offering ways to harmonize data and promote information
sharing amongst the stakeholders are key. An integrated and harmonized platform on labor market
information (quantitative and qualitative data) should encourage stakeholders to use this new
information, and link it to their own policy analysis.

3. PATHWAYS FOR IMPROVED LMIS IN AFRICA

3.1 MAKING LMIS RELEVANT FOR THE EMPLOYER, JOB SEEKER AND POLICY-MAKER

A well-developed LMIS does not automatically lead to better policies, jobs and skills. Continuously
improving labor market support structures have allowed the more advanced systems to flourish, which
in turn have improved the functioning of the labor market, further strengthening its stakeholders.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 39

Applying our typology, we can state that advanced countries' LMIS have moved up the ladder from type
1 to type 2 and 3 as their labor markets have gained in sophistication.

In Australia, Denmark, France, the UK or the US, LMIS have become the knowledge base on which labor
policies are built and the go-to place for workers and employers looking for work, training and skills.
These countries' labor markets would not function like they do without up to date, readily available and
precise information on local and national employment levels, skill demand foresights, job offers and
vacancies, trainings and qualifications or user-friendly employment services.

In these countries, national and local development strategies build on solid foundations of up to date
statistics, credible labor assessments and projections. When a person registers for unemployment in a
job center a domino effect of actions immediately follow: a job profile is created in a database,
automatically adjusting centrally managed statistical figures; benefit options are determined, including
training options and career paths, which are investigated; CVs are published online; local and national
job searches are conducted, and so forth. The same chain of events does not unfold in the African
context where the impact of removing the implemented LMIS will not reduce job prospects or lead to a
deterioration of the quality of policies.

In order to be a useful tool for the employer, job seeker and policy maker, an LMIS must become user-
centric. The more online services these systems are able to provide, the more they are used, the more
data they can capture, the more feedback loops they can create, and the more relevant and sustainable
they become. Some of the avenues that need to be explored to engage with a job seeker, for instance,
are online registration with a range of public and private training services, online access to career
guidance counseling, soft skills trainings and unemployment benefits. With recent technological
developments, transactional solutions are inexpensive to put in place and increasingly easy to maintain.
Our central proposition is that the development of an integrated LMIS, can help set this virtuous cycle
into motion. The question to be addressed is how we transform basic type 1 LMIS into 2s, or perhaps
leapfrog directly into type 3s.

3.2 ANALYSIS OF THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF LMIS IN AFRICA

There are promising signs that the quality of LMIS in Africa is improving. Twenty-six out of the 38 African
Union member countries (68%) in the AU LMIS inventory have either conducted a labor force survey
since 2013 or are in the process of doing so in 2015-2016 (African Union, 2015). African Union leaders
have renewed their commitment to strengthening labor market governance and specifically LMIS,
through the 2015 Ouagadougou +10 Declaration and Plan of Action on Employment, Poverty Eradication
and Inclusive Development. The resulting First Five-Year Priority Programme (2015-19) specifically aims
to "strengthen the role and management of Labor Market Institutions (LMIs) and Information Systems
(LMIS) as important components of national economic development planning" (African Union, 2015).

Furthermore, there are, in all countries, untapped sources of labor market information, be they from the
private sector, public agencies in the form of administrative data (in Section 3.3, we will look into how
and which sources could be put to good use) or from donor supported programs, basing their
interventions on a wealth of assessments, studies, evaluations and progress reports. Such information

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 40

tends to be churned out without systematic regard for past evaluations or similar bodies of work
elsewhere, and findings are not necessarily disseminated. Yet they are increasingly easy to access as
they are more often than not stored on databases that could be made publicly accessible if they are not
already.

3.2.1 Donor-led systems with limited sustainability

Despite these promising developments, however, and with some possible exceptions like Mauritius
(Johanson & Adams, 2004) and South Africa, most LMIS on the continent remain stuck with basic
systems, or what we refer to as Type 1 or entry level Type 2 systems. No truly convincing system exists
in Africa that brings significant value to policy makers, employers and employees alike (Powell & Reddy,
2015). Despite LMIS' success as a subject of development assistance, the most advanced systems remain
the preserve of developed countries as illustrated by our systems landscape.

Even with the focus on developing data-driven LMIS, to ensure that countries are able to maintain labor
indicators such as KILM, Decent Work and AU defined minimal lists of indicators, Africa's LMIS are not
yet able to fulfill the data requirements with autonomy or credible and consistent results as per
standards of the ILO, which sets the agenda in this field. In 2004, the World Bank concluded in a study
that the LMIS that have been set in motion in Africa are either discontinued, or their labor market
information quickly becomes obsolete if not donor supported (Johanson & Adams, 2004). Almost ten
years later, in 2013, Sparreboom highlights that the systems abilities to generate key labor market
indicators are particularly weak throughout Africa, especially when compared to other world regions
(Sparreboom, 2013).

Besides the lack of integration with employment services - which we will get further into, a key
explanation for their underperformance is indeed the lack of financial support needed to bring about,
and sustain, the required technical and human resources for LMIS development. LMIS are a hard sell in
budget negotiations when competition for scarce resources is fierce and other pressing humanitarian or
socio-economic issues appear more important than a tool for policy makers.

Indeed, all African countries are essentially confronted with the same financial constraints translating to
resource scarcity, limited analytical capacity and other structural factors (Sparreboom, 2013). If LMIS are
to deliver on their promise that better labor market information leads to better policy and decision
making by labor market actors, then the current vicious circle depicted in the diagram below – in which
LMIS are unable to deliver value because low demand fueled by weak data, analysis and dissemination
lead to less allocated resources – needs to be broken. Lack of resources is, of course, a fundamental
problem; however, beyond financial challenges, what characterizes and causes African LMIS’ weak
performance?”

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 41

 Figure 6. LMIS Vicious Cycle

Low Few
demand resources

Poor
quality

3.2.2 System ownership troubles

A major cause of weak African LMIS is that they remain peripheral, meaning not truly integrated with
policy making channels, and as a result not actually informing the choices of labor market actors. One
obvious reason for this is that the systems have been initially overseen and funded by international
actors with the hope of eventually mainstreaming the tool into the day-to-day functioning and budget of
the state apparatus such as the labor administration, the employment ministry, the planning ministry or
the central statistics office, and managed and staffed by trained technically competent personnel. Buy-in
from actors has been insufficient and there is probably a sense that LMIS projects drown amidst all
other donor-led initiatives and fail to get the attention they deserve despite their potential importance
for the labor market.

Another, more central explanation is that the responsibility for LMIS has almost always been attributed
to the department in charge of statistics (usually, the National Institute of Statistics) that is by definition
concerned with support rather than with operations (e.g. of education, health, infrastructure, or the
economy) and thus removed from decision-making centers.

Generally entrusted with data collection on the labor market, statistical departments have been
considered the natural owners of LMIS. Every one of the African Union's 38 focal points for LMIS
development, for example, are high-level representatives of the country's statistical institutions. These

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 42

are the same institutions and individuals usually represented at meetings on and involved in the AU's
2012-2016 Labor Market Harmonization and Coordination Framework Project (LMHCFP) 10 in Africa.11

The problem with the location at the periphery of Government of LMIS is compounded since
collaboration between departments tends to be weak in developing countries (Johanson & Adams,
2004, p. 58). They lack crucial human and technical means and, consequently, few are able to regularly
collect labor market data, especially without outside help. Most data has been collected in the event of
an externally financed, i.e. internationally backed project, and surveys, which constitute the backbone of
a statistical system, are renewed irregularly, if ever. Labor Force surveys are often so complex to
implement that it can take up to three years before final data is ready for dissemination. By then, the
data might be significantly out of date and its usefulness for policy makers, as a consequence, reduced
(Powell & Reddy, 2015, p. 7). These observations are supported by the "Inventory of countries LMIS"
that the African Union uses to monitor countries progress. Botswana, for instance, conducted its first
Labor Force and Manpower Survey in 2005. A new one is scheduled in 2015. Kenya's first one was in
1999 while its second one is to be rolled out in 2016.

There is also confusion, if not competition, between departments on who should be managing the LMIS.
Designated focal points are not always the right choice either, making it unclear who is in charge, and
diffusing responsibility for the actual running of the system. In Rwanda for instance, the AU's designated
LMIS focal point is the Director of the Statistical Methods, Research and Publication Unit at the National
Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) (African Union, 2015), but the country's dedicated LMIS unit is
located at the Ministry of Public Service and Labor (MIFOTRA). The former attends ILO's meetings on
Labor statistics while the latter considers collaboration "weak" with NISR, hoping that it will be
strengthened when the country's first labor force survey will be rolled out (Interview LMIS unit -
05/10/2015).

Statistical departments lack resources and isolation is only part of the problem: the confinement of LMIS
to the statistical departments is a powerful illustration of what we have described in section 1 of this
report as being a too restrictive, data oriented focus of LMIS implementers. Moving LMIS to the
department in charge of labor, or the economy, with effective support from the statistics department
might be a move in the right direction, but it would still be insufficient. Palliative measures to guide LMIS
towards a more integrated, service and private sector oriented model are needed.

3.2.3 Little value and analysis

3.2.3.1 Limited systems functionality

Referring to South Africa's LMIS, Powell and Reddy (2015) suggest "the systems that were developed
were inadequate and failed to provide the end user ... with the intelligence that they required. The

10See Annex for more information on the LMHCFP.

11A recent illustration: the African Union Technical Work Group on Labor Market Information and Informal Economy meeting
held in Abidjan in August 2015 united "Technical experts from Department of Statistics of the African Union, the International
Labor Organization (ILO), AFRISTAT, the UN Economic Commission for Africa; national statisticians from Burkina Faso, Cameroon,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe as well as
specialists from African Regional Economic Communities (RECS)" (International Labor Organization, 2015).

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 43

systems were capable of providing broad, macro level national data, but they were not able to provide
specific sector-level indicators that could inform planners how to make improved decisions regarding
the way in which resources were to be invested in skills". Our landscape review illustrates similar states
of affairs very clearly:

 The Rwanda online system, which does reflect the data available at the level of the LMIS unit,
contains only superficial information on skills availability and most available macro level
information is out of date. Some of the data available is not made public, and there is no way to
know about it or request it.
 The Botswana system's online registration to access information is not working, and its job
database contains no recent postings.
 Cameroon's LMIS shows that there are only very few recent job offers, and there is no other
recent labor market information to access online.

3.2.3.2 Little value for the private sector

The private sector association representatives that were interviewed were critical as well when it came
to assessing the value provided by their national systems. For example, the GICAM (Cameroon Private
Sector Association) representative pointed out that their members are most interested in knowing what
skills are available, but have nowhere to turn for this kind of information (Interview GICAM,
05/14/2015). Similarly, the Private Sector Representatives of both Rwanda and Botswana argued that
the country LMIS is not providing any value to the private sector since it contains no practical
information on the supply skills or the extend of the skills gap (Interview PSF 05/13/2015; Interview
BOCCIM 05/01/2015). Indeed, very little information on available skills (beyond general education
information) are available in the countries’ LMIS. Yet occupational information, skill distributions and
shortcomings are arguably the most important type of information any LMIS should have. Only four of
the 38 countries (10.5%) in the AU's inventory have rolled out skills surveys in the past three years
(African Union, 2015).

3.2.3.3 Missing analysis

Although ambitions displayed are high, and might lead us to believe that LMIS will have value for the
user, the majority of surveyed countries produce "at best...coherent summaries of their country’s labor
market. These are useful documents for economists and researchers, but, in the majority of cases, only
minimal attention is given to the policy implications of the findings (Powell & Reddy, 2015, p. 7). Where
statistical capacities exist, they have been excessively directed towards the process of data collection.
Surveys are important instruments but if the data they generate is not analyzed, they have little
applicability: "the outputs from the LMIS consist of large statistical books that are of little use to
anybody but doctoral students and international agencies doing comparative studies" (Powell & Reddy,
2015, p. 7).

Still, the labor statisticians/economists and other analysts which could help maximize the utility of the
available data by producing labor market intelligence are few - the low resource problem. Running a
LMIS effectively, i.e. with proper analysis, requires qualified and trained analysts that are in high
demand, and therefore expensive, so are difficult for the public sector to retain (Johanson & Adams,

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 44

2004, p. 59). In Rwanda, the only labor economist of the LMIS unit is overloaded and often tasked
elsewhere in the Ministry. This makes it difficult to produce regular analysis and reports. The other three
staff of the unit are IT specialists (Interview MIFOTRA, 05/10/2015).

3.2.4 Ineffective dissemination of labor market information

A related and central problem is that the labor market information available is not disseminated and
thus stand little chance of being utilized by policy makers and other labor market practitioners unaware
of its existence. According to Powell and Reddy (2015) this lack of dissemination is "one of the most
significant failures of the LMIS system in low-income countries". When a labor market report is
published, there might be a launch event organized and the report might be physically circulated
amongst some of the key ministries and agencies. The report will probably be uploaded on the Ministry
in charge of the publication's website but most often in a format (.pdf) that makes internet search
engine indexation difficult. The launch of the report might be relayed by local media (most often a copy
of the press release) but the key findings, rarely communicated beyond the immediate timeframe of the
launch, are not subject to target-specific communication activities, and the messages therefore quickly
drown in the mass of information. Consequently, the average job seeker or labor intermediary, for
example, will probably never get the message about the skills that are in demand, and that he or she
should develop, following the conduct of a census or survey.

It is therefore mostly people who are actively looking for labor market information - such as the
researchers mentioned above by Powell and Vijay - that will manage to find some, because they will
think to go to the statistics' office website, identify, open and read the reports. We have found no
convincing example in Africa of formulating labor market information so that it answers the questions
"what do these findings mean to me?" In other words, labor market information is presented with the
recipient's point of view and situation in mind when in fact, labor market information should cater to
many different target groups. The policy maker or the academic seem to be favored (given the data-
centric nature of the system) but what about the employers, the job seekers, the students, their
families, their counselors and labor intermediaries, i.e. the key players of the labor market?

Even when the information reaches the interested party, the packaging of it generally lacks any practical
information on what to do about the situation, e.g. how to locate and apply at a training center where
specific skills training exists to pursue our previous skills development example. Looking at
entrepreneurial skills training in a country like Rwanda, we observe that there are numerous trainings
on offer from both public and private providers. Yet, neither Rwanda's LMIS, nor any of the other
Governments’ websites, relay this information to the unemployed in a comprehensive way. Not only is
compound information on the nature and number of such trainings inexistent, it is difficult for a
potential trainee, an unemployed job seeker for instance, to find this

information designed for him or her. First, finding it requires knowing such trainings are available and
open for applicants like this particular individual, then he or she requires guidance on how to access it. It
is unclear how a country that lacks developed employment counseling can fill this void.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 45

3.2.5 Low levels of private sector participation
All private sector interviewees have asserted that they do not really use their country's LMIS, even when
they know of its existence. Nonetheless, they manifest an interest in the concept, especially for
information on the availability and quality of labor supply. In Botswana, Rwanda and Cameroon, for
instance, there is clear demand for knowing what pool of skills exist in the informal labor market, and in
knowing how to access them, yet it is assumed that no such information exists (Interview GICAM,
05/14/2015). Employers are also interested in knowing what options (courses/trainings) and support
mechanisms (simplified procedures, subventions or tax credits for professional training) exist to have
their existing or future employees trained.

One explanation might be that the private sector is not effectively involved in the governance of the
LMIS. When LMIS projects are set up, its backers insist on private sector participation, yet we have
found no evidence, in the desk review or in the interviews, where this involvement goes beyond the
employer federation, the chamber of commerce or similar institutions taking part in project steering
committees. That the private sector has a decisive influence on what an LMIS should be able to do is
crucial given the fact that the vast majority of jobs created, or that need to be created, are private
sector jobs. Firms are best suited to determine and predict skill shortages and oversupplies or evaluate
the effectiveness of education and vocational training. Their insights need to be harnessed in a
systematic way beyond a role as survey respondents.

More active participation from private enterprises as co-managers of LMIS is required, but so is that of
consumers and producers of labor market information. As we have determined, throughout the
continent today, firms are only sporadically involved in the governance of LMIS, and as consumers, they
view government statistics as incomplete, sometimes questionable. The GICAM representative from
Cameroon, for example, stated that job creation figures are politicized and hence overestimated.
Furthermore, immediately applicable labor market information such as the outputs of public online job
banks and other labor intermediation services are practically not used because they are either void of
significant content, or the quality of the available profiles is so uncertain (no screening of the profiles),
that firms prefer to fill a vacancy on their own means - often relying on business and family networks -
rather than depending on public employment services (Interview GICAM, 05/14/2015).

Private companies across Africa try to find commercial value in filling in the information vacuum on the
jobs markers through the creation of online job intermediation portals.12 A basic web search indicates
that in all countries, private online job portals do exist, yet the usefulness of the sites as measured by
number of CVs and latest job offerings vary greatly. In Rwanda and Cameroon, and probably most other
African countries where obligations to publish vacancies exist only for state owned enterprises and
agencies, job offers are far from numerous, most likely because, as stated earlier, companies use other
networks to fulfill their labor demand (Interview MIFOTRA, 05/10/2015); Interview GICAM,
05/14/2015).

12Examples of the private intermediation portals include for Rwanda: tohoza.com; jobinrwanda.com; umurimo.com, for
Cameroon: adrh-apave.com; camerjob.com, everjobs.cm

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 46

As producers of labor market information, private sector associations conduct studies on the labor
market such as employer needs assessments or member surveys. They organize seminars or workshops
which lead to reports, position papers with insights most likely useful for decision makers and labor
market practitioners. As is the case for public labor market information, dissemination beyond their
members and the closest stakeholders could be improved. The intelligence produced is not
systematically included in national LMIS – indeed far from it – or relayed by them.

3.2.6 Absence of informal sector labor market information

New approaches to labor market information that depart from just looking at labor survey data are
needed given the size of the informal economy throughout the continent's countries that dwarf formal
businesses and employees. With over 80% of the labor force working in informal occupations, a system
that focuses on formal labor market description, or on mapping the skills that a small formal sector
demands, quickly shows its limit in terms of applicability and credibility.

Some data on the informal sector are in country pipelines: 12 out of 38 (31%) countries in the AU LMIS
inventory have begun implementing informal economy surveys to shed more light on labor market
realities in the pervasive informal sectors (African Union, 2015). The International Conference of Labor
Statisticians (ICLS) and ILO's call for action to measure informality and facilitate transitions to formality
push for these developments. However welcome these new figures will be, the surveys’ detail and
quality will vary from country to country, namely because countries still apply different definitions,
measuring "informal employment" or the "informal sector" (Guenin, 2015).

A growing number of stakeholders and business research acknowledges that informal employment will
remain persistent for decades, especially among youth, yet that the situation of those in informal
employment can be improved. Improving the labor outcomes of informal workers, means raising the
quality of the products and the services they produce, better leveraging of informal workers’ assets as a
process conducive to skills recognition and promoting value chain access and other forms of enterprise
development support (Guenin, 2015).

Statistics should focus on measuring what is done to help informal workers and firms, for example the
rates of transition into formality (which would give a good indication as to institutions' efforts to
facilitate access) or the number of certifications and services provided, instead of concentrating all
efforts on creating static snapshots of the situation that prevail in the informal sector.

However comprehensive, well designed and effectively implemented new informal sector surveys turn
out to be, it is likely that they will face the same data collection challenges as other surveys, i.e.
expensive and quick to become obsolete with little value if not properly analyzed or disseminated. As
they do not represent a departure from the statistical approach used so far to develop LMIS in Africa,
they will not be useful to employers and employees seeking to grow and make the transition to
formality.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 47

3.3 THE PATH TOWARDS THE INTEGRATED LMIS “TYPE 2”

3.3.1 Ensure high-level support to build an integrated knowledge base

In this section, we formulate practical recommendations to help transform basic LMIS into integrated
ones (i.e. from type 1 to 3 as advocated throughout section 2).

Countries with basic LMIS will be better positioned to reach LMIS Type 2 or leapfrog to a Type 3, if,
rather than going down the trodden path of LMIS development, i.e. concentrating efforts towards the
production of employment statistics, priority is given to enrolling the support and participation of a
broader network of ministries and other actors, public and private. We first argue that this will require
support at the highest level of government for strengthened collaboration across ministries and sectors
to create and share information that benefits employers and workers.

The engagement of new actors through the development of new institutional arrangements paves the
way for exploiting existing sources of information and determining how they can be of use for
employers and workers. We believe that this can be achieved through the implementation of practical,
interrelated recommendations ranging from utilizing existing analytical tools and administrative data,
especially on the economic context for skills development, to producing more in-depth local level
assessments and to encouraging more private labor intermediation.

3.3.2 Ensuring high-level support

The first step in getting from a basic LMIS to an advanced one entails that decision-makers shift the
focus of LMIS development away from the management of macro-level employment indicators, to
supporting the development of skills and employment services that are adapted to the realities of
African labor markets.

Without this recognition at the highest level of government, the organizational arrangements enabling
cross-department cooperation on labor market information cannot materialize. International donors,
too, need to internalize the idea that just because countries are able to submit Decent Work indicators
to the ILO on a regular basis, on cannot assert that their LMIS are bringing any sort of value to
employers, employees, labor market intermediaries or the policymakers concerned with creating better
labor outcomes and growth.

High level support should materialize by building three pillars on which LMIS development can rest:

1. Network building because the system's dynamism and sustainability is defined by the number and
type of public and private actors that are encouraged and able to contribute, and by its ability to
entice new actors to join the system be its a producers or users of labor market information.
2. Strategic planning that centers on creating information and service value for the end-user
3. Collaborative and dynamic IT platforms which are constantly evolving to facilitate, as much as
possible, the sharing of data and analysis in a seamless and user-centric way.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 48

3.3.3 Exploiting existing sources of labor market information
Once high-level support for an integrated LMIS has been achieved, the objective should be to identify,
mobilize and extract new labor market information from previously unexploited sources.

Administrative information is a major source of untapped hard and soft data that can be assimilated to
labor market information. It is produced across the governmental spectrum and can take a variety of
shapes, such as reports, evaluations, studies, raw data, statistics, brochures and briefing notes. Today,
these data are increasingly easy to access: they're more often than not stored in databases. Making
them public is just a matter of goodwill as technical barriers disappear. Beyond the traditional labor and
statistics departments, information that relates to the labor market (hard data and intelligence) is
regularly produced from the following departments:

 The trade registry: new and closed businesses by activity/sector, annual returns, shareholder
structure, etc.
 Social security and pension funds: number of employees /members of funds, lengths of
contract, flows of members into and out of funds, declared income, etc.
 Public service department: civil service employment flows, by age, gender, salary rates by
education level, vacancies, etc.
 Ministries of finance, planning, economy, industry and trade: economic analysis and forecasting
including employment forecasts, projected growth by sector, region, municipality, figures on
trade in goods and services trades, changes in trade and investment flows, investment.
 Tax authority: tax payers by employment status (including in many countries informally
employed13), payroll data, income tax growth projections, sectorial information, tax incentives
accorded to investment projects, and municipal level tax collection data (including local business
licenses).
 Trade associations: various membership data by trade and craft, including surveys.
 Central banks: foreign exchange and direct investment flows per sector, compounded banking
information, including from microfinance institutions.
 Immigration: visa and work permits delivered by occupation/skill.
 Education: public and private enrollment (primary, secondary, tertiary, vocational training),
dropout rates, graduates by competency, skill projections, professional trainings offered.
 Agriculture, tourism, telecom/IT, mining and other sector-specific departments: information and
analysis, permits and business licenses granted, development plans including skill assessments.

Each source has advantages and limitations, but administrative records generally provide a low-cost
source of labor market information (Sparreboom, 2013). If some of these sources could be identified,
pooled, analyzed and packaged for consumption, then the shortcomings of African LMIS as isolated, low

13 In many countries such as Togo, Bénin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Cameroon, tax authorities collect local and/or national taxes
from unregistered businesses, typically micro, informal firms. These taxes are called "Impot synthétique" (or, “synthetic tax”),
"Contribution du secteur informel" (or, “contribution of the informal sector”), and are usually based on an estimation of annual
turnover by tax inspectors, such as in Bénin, or based on a list of occupations, such as in Burkina Faso.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 49

value and poorly disseminated systems that overly rely on resource intensive surveys could be
alleviated. LMIS could be made much more relevant and rich in insights and signals. Instead of always
seeking to gather more descriptive information on the orders of magnitude that prevail in the labor
market (i.e. survey data), which is costly and time consuming, we should ask what insights on the labor
market can be derived from existing sources of information.

We should focus on insights that could serve the policy-maker and the training practitioner who is
concerned that the skills supply improves the prospects of the private sector, the job seeker and the
employer.

3.3.4 Integrating analysis of the economic context and growth trends

Information that pertains to the unique and complex economic environment that shapes the workforce
is particularly important to determine what skills are in demand or oversupplied, what sectors grow or
show promise. Building a knowledge-sharing platform that centralizes, coordinates and facilitates access
to economic and sectoral studies, reports emanating from the entire spectrum of government as
highlighted in section 3.3.2 would be a significant step in the right direction.

Internationally, there are accessible, free (or at least available for a small fee) economic information and
tools for analysis. Some are highly relevant to understand where current and future jobs are and will be,
such as14:

1. The Trade Share Matrix, which shows strengths and weaknesses in the country’s export market,
relative to global past performance and global growth in demand of those segments.
Understanding the market share of each sector within the economy allows for the design of
programs that target sectors with the highest demand and export performance so that
workforce programs can benefit the economy and vice versa. To refine the categories to an
increasing number of niche areas of exports, it uses Global Trade Atlas’s (GTA) numeric system
to break down export industries to the level of products.
2. The Product Space, which shows the most successful export products for a country, using a
special mapping of the products’ relationships to one another. It depicts a network map in which
products are closer to one another if growth in their exports is correlated. The map shows a
country’s economic complexity, which is, “a measure of the knowledge in a society that gets
translated into the products it makes,” and is “…dependent on the complexity of the products it
exports.” Analysis using the product space will identify potential spillover effects from one
sector to another – one of the key ways in which economies develop. Based on what export
products a country specializes in, it is possible to calculate the probability that the production of
other goods and services that share the same human, physical, and institutional capital can
become competitive too. The more closely related the products are to what the country is
already producing, the easier this process is. For example, countries competitive in the export of

14FHI 360’s Workforce Connections team uses these tools to identify where current and future jobs are likely to be in developing
economies.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 50

 fresh flowers also tend to be competitive in the export of fresh fish, since both depend on the
existence of a world-class cold chain.15

3.3.5 Expanding knowledge of the informal labor market

As we have seen, informal firms are by far the biggest suppliers of employment in Africa. Transforming
informal employment into more sustainable, decent and formal jobs requires understanding the
dynamics of the sector and of the barriers that hamper the transition to formality. Taking the
conventional statistical approach, i.e. simply describing the situation that prevails in the sector with
labor force, household and informal surveys, to create this knowledge base is insufficient. These need to
be complemented with new sources of information, working closely with organizations that actually
interact with businesses and workers in the informal economy on a daily basis, and therefore have built
a wealth of information in their efforts to provide a service or collect taxes. Three sources stand out:

1. Microfinance institutions (MFIs): in providing financial services to millions of unregistered

entrepreneurs and small businesses across the continent, they capture a wealth of information
on business activity, income generation capacity, revenue, growth, client bases and geographical
location. Regulatory authorities that authorize their operations could facilitate partnerships with
MFIs. Arrangements could include provisions for data transmission or arranging for new data to
be collected by them, on behalf of the state. With hundreds of thousands of customers in many
countries, they are often better suited than civil servants to formulate, analyze and evaluate
interventions relating to informal labor markets.16
2. Municipalities and tax authorities: according to UNCTAD17, state and municipal authorities
collect a range of taxes on informal businesses. Surprisingly, their payment does not qualify
them for formal status. Income taxes designed for the informal sector or very small enterprises
are called "synthetic tax" or "informal sector contributions" and are usually collected by
municipal or tax agents directly at the business location18. In many African countries, such as
Bénin, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso or Togo, municipalities make entrepreneurs pay for the right to
sell their products or services on their streets. At the time of collection, forms are generally filled
and the information subsequently sits at the municipality.
3. Trade associations: across Africa, trade associations, for craftsmen for instance, as with the
Malian "Fédération des Artisans", maintain data on their members who they attract by providing
services, such as vocational trainings or governmental lobbying (Johanson & Adams, 2004).

3.3.6 Focusing more on local data

Jobs and job pools are locally based. As we saw in the landscape review (Section 2), in all advanced LMIS
surveyed, increasingly detailed hyper-local labor market information has become the norm, allowing for
comparisons across neighborhoods. Such is the case within boroughs of London or communes in France,

15 The Atlas of Economic Complexity (Center for International Development at Harvard, 2016)
16 According to MixMarket, there are 1.6 million depositors and 178'000 in Rwandan microfinance institutions. In Cameroon, the
number of depositors is close to 1 million. (MixMarket, 2016)
17 As an example, in Bénin, in the Dantokpa market of Cotonou, users pay a municipal tax called "Patente" (World Bank, 2013)
18 In Burkina Faso, for instance, the tax is called "Contribution du secteur informel" (Direction Générale des Impôts, 2016)

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 51

for instance. The idea for African countries would be to incorporate this dimension, and step away from
the default, i.e. the ambitions of attaining a national coverage.

A local approach covering a few selected and nationally representative territories, brings about 3 main
benefits:

1. It is sometimes easier to fund investigations on geographically reduced perimeters.

2. Mobilizing actors at the local level is more manageable.
3. Increased opportunity for in-depth and accurate labor market assessments (namely because of
pt. 1 and 2). This increases the possibility to apply findings to other local regions borders.

This approach does not prevent the subsequent extrapolation or aggregation/consolidation of

information on several territories.

3.3.7 Developing new partnerships with research institutions

In order to successfully conduct these territorial investigations and develop cross-departmental
collaboration, and given the likely shortfall in resources, our recommendation is to delegate LMIS
management to research institutions. Universities that offer economics and statistical degrees would be
a particularly good fit. As we saw in the landscape review, the UK has had great success in delegating to
Durham University the management of the National Online Manpower Information System (NOMIS), the
centralized information system on the labor market. Durham has overseen the system on behalf of the
National Statistics Office since 1986.

Indeed, universities are able to mobilize and provide incentives to many students, who, as part of their
coursework, could carry out a significant portion of data collection and treatment; and might, with the
help of the teaching body and statistical institutes, work on analytical research. Universities are ideally
suited to provide the kind of monitoring of the labor market and of its various stakeholders that LMIS in
Africa need. Additional advantages of this approach, are the relative (i) neutrality of the university
allowing the institution to overcome the turf wars associated with LMIS ownership and (ii) durability of
the institution, more likely to overcome the effects of political and economic turmoil.

3.3.8 Strengthening private sector intermediation and participation

Despite the fact that the job matching systems in all the advanced LMIS included in our landscape
review are publicly managed, private sector and online employer/employee intermediation are, we
believe, the most promising way forward in Africa to facilitate job matching.

Private job matching websites exist in all developing countries we surveyed, and from what we can see,
attract more job offers and job seekers than official government-promoted websites when these exist
(as we have seen in Botswana and Cameroon). With the rapid spreading of the Internet in Africa,
intermediation increasingly occurs through the web and, if applying medium-term reasoning, this
tendency will accelerate over the next 5-10 years. Indeed, in developed countries, the Internet quickly
became the default access to job offers, because it enables immediate access and extension of job
searching’s geographical range as it is possible to consult local, national and often worldwide offers

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 52

simultaneously. Besides public job matching sites, a wealth of private providers competes to offer online
intermediation services.

The economic model underpinning this activity is such that intermediating firms are incentivized to
dynamism and proactivity. The more there are customers (online profiles and postings) on the demand
and supply side, the more there are potential revenue streams.

The question then becomes how to encourage the development of these online job markets when
advertised job offers are few. One way would be to ensure that private publication is, with respect to
the law, equal to publication through state sanctioned media. Another way is to expand requirements
for publication that often apply to state owned enterprises and the public sector to smaller enterprises -
in a manner that does not extend the regulatory burden and that shields the firm from extra scrutiny
and harassment from state authorities.

3.3.9 Embracing Open Data: preparing for real time LMIS

An important technical recommendation is to leverage the power of data and analytics to shed new light
on what governments are doing (and on what they could be doing) to spur employment. This can be
achieved by; first, recognizing that data already exists in various databases of the institutions listed as
promising sources of labor market information in Section 3.3.3. Indeed, governments are investing in
new systems to replace old ones or automate processes that were previously done manually. For
instance, elaborate tax information systems exist in most countries, which contain a wealth of
information on formal and informal business activity. In Kenya and Tanzania, the respective revenue
authorities' tax systems, track individual and business registrations, declarations and payments, tax
incentives for investment projects or payroll in detail.19 This is much like their customs' management
software produce detailed information on goods imported and exported, then used by Harvard
University and the International Trade Chamber to compile the Atlas on Economic Complexity or the
Trade Share Matrix.

The second is to encourage institutions to work towards opening up their databases (masking parts that
contain personal information), allowing partner institutions and research institutes to access them and
use the information without restrictions and remotely. Internationally, the process of making
administrative data freely accessible is referred to as Open Data. These technological solutions need not
be expensive or risky. So-called "web services", for instance, are not technically difficult to implement.
Some countries in Africa have already signed the pledge for Open Data, and built platforms from which
some datasets can be accessed: Ghana (Ghana Open Data Initiative20); Kenya (Open Data Portal21);
Morocco (data.gov.ma). Many more databases could be included in each country, and several more
African countries could join these initiatives.

19 See, for example, Kenya's iTax (https://itax.kra.go.ke/KRA-Portal/) and TradeNet (http://www.kentrade.go.ke/) systems.

20 http://data.gov.gh/ (Ghana Open Data Initiative, 2016)

21 https://opendata.go.ke/ (ICT Authority, 2016)

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 53

The same principles should not only apply for statistics though: again, classifying according to themes
(using internet "tags"), publishing existing reports, studies, briefings so that they are freely available,
and searchable by search engines should be systemized.

The process of opening data, will allow new players, especially private ones, to develop tools and
produce labor market intelligence. One such system is the Real Time LMIS (RT-LMIS) which gathers and
analyzes labor market information by scrutinizing automatically, using search-bots, a multitude of online
job offers and employee profiles and extracting key information on evolutions in skill supply, demand
and matching. The current world leader in this field is Burning Glass technologies, which claims to
provide the best analytical solutions to address the skills gap (Burning Glass, 2016).

As online job matching grows, the technology will expand and more countries will adopt the technology.
Within a few years, and as just seen in our previous recommendation, recruiting and
employer/employee linkages will overwhelmingly take place online. We believe so called "Big Data"
innovations such as RT-LMIS represent an opportunity for African countries as they automate, extract,
compile and analyze data while facilitating access to findings. This, in turn, reduces the need for larger
investments and human resources to monitor certain aspects of the labor market.

Countries that are not ready to implement such technology, should take steps to prepare for their
arrival by opening up access to their various departments, digitalizing their archives and modernizing
their databases. Such steps to create an enabling environment for a range of new LMIS actors will prove
better investments than trying to maintain systems used by very few.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 54

4. CONCLUSION

4.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

In this study, we have strived to understand what LMIS are supposed to be and do. We quickly
established that while LMIS should be servicing employers, workers, as well as policy-makers, in Africa
they have especially targeted the decision-maker or the researcher. The reason for this has been a
narrow focus on developing what we defined as "data-driven" systems rather than on developing
"service-oriented" ones that benefit employers and workers first.

We made the case for the "integrated LMIS" which is achievable if employment services and statistical
components are allowed to interact, and dynamically benefit from each other. This way practitioners
can get the data they need to offer more adapted services to employers and workers, while analysts can
use the data collected through the management of services to construct more accurate and predictive
models of the labor market.

The comparison of national LMIS systems confirmed that advanced economies have all built integrated
knowledge systems offering useful statistics that are enriched continuously (and automatically) through
information relating to employment services. As a result, these countries are able to offer user-centric
labor market information services to a wider range of users.

We have theorized this call for integrated systems by proposing a typology. It represents a new
framework for evaluating national LMIS as a function of system participants and type of outputs. A basic
data-driven system comprises few public actors with limited capacity, while on the other side of the
spectrum, the advanced LMIS is strengthened by the private sector's active contribution to the system.

The analytical tool enables the identification of pathways that countries can follow to transform their
LMIS into an advanced one. For African countries, the first step towards building the integrated labor
market knowledge platform must be adopting a transversal and collaborative governance structure for
LMIS. This will open up the opportunity for exploiting new sources of labor market information, namely
to cast a brighter light on the economic context, especially on promising sectors and the informal
economy. Secondary steps include implementing technically oriented solutions ranging from focusing on
local level data, to outsourcing system management to research institutions, to making more room for
the private sector to intermediate and working for more open data.

These recommendations are by no means exhaustive and further investigation into these pathways,
such as defining concrete mechanisms for implementation, will be needed. Indeed, the process of
transformation from a basic LMIS to an advanced integrated one is an undertaking of significant
dimensions. New technologies have lowered the cost and the timeframe to get there, though, and with
better support from international partners, there is no reason why employers and employees could not
soon reap the first benefits that come with integration.

The African Union could play a significant part in promoting and facilitating the transition to integrated
LMIS among its Member States.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 55

4.2 WHAT ROLE FOR THE AFRICAN UNION IN SUPPORTING LMIS DEVELOPMENT?

The AU can become a driving force for LMIS development by first convincing Member States and
Regional Economic Communities (REC) to adopt a new vision for LMIS and by encouraging competition
between them. This could be achieved by:

1. Defining new standards for an integrated LMIS that gives prominence to the number and quality
of services provided to workers and employers, to the availability of local level data and to the
levels of institutional cooperation on labor market information.
2. Building an index of African LMIS, and the sharing of experiences, once the new standards are
agreed upon. The index could include:
a. an online catalogue of countries systems including governance structure, strategic plans,
functionalities and available labor market information in the broad sense (data, services
including intermediation);
b. a ranking of systems based on the new standards (number and quality of services
provided, local level data, number of institutional and number of active private
contributors, number of system visits; and
c. promoting champions by highlighting and explaining best practices, focusing on how
labor market information helped the worker or employer.
3. Defining measurable targets and ensuring the official adoption of these by each Member State
and shared targets in each REC; and
4. Requiring countries to report on progress towards reaching the targets, and associating to this
end, public and private players that are not only representatives of the statistical authority but
of authorities in charge of skills and private sector development.

A more unusual role would be for the AU to propose technical assistance to their member states by
developing templates such as ready to use online systems free of user rights (open source) which are
aligned with, for instance, the state of the art for labor intermediation and international standards on
labor statistics. The AU could also enter into a partnership with technology providers (such as Burning
Glass) to offer member states who so desire access to cost effective technology solutions for electronic
job markets and cutting edge labor market analysis. The adoption of the new vision for an integrated
approach to LMIS in Africa will open the doors to many more innovative interventions.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 56

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A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 60

ANNEX 1: INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR LMIS DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
Several institutional and regulatory frameworks provide the political mandate for African States to
develop their LMIS. These frameworks, which exist at both international and regional levels, oblige
governments to develop national systems to adequately capture labor market information. This section
provides an overview of these arrangements, mapping some of the most important resulting initiatives
to develop LMIS in Africa, both past and present.

The Ouagadougou Declarations and Plan of Action on Employment, Poverty Eradication and Inclusive
Development.

In LMIS literature, the 2004 Ouagadougou Declaration and Plan of Action on Employment and Poverty
Alleviation is cited as the first official recognition by African Heads of States during the African Union
Summit that LMIS are necessary and important instruments for poverty reduction and employment. The
Declaration helped raise awareness on the specific need for LMIS by calling for more targeted efforts at
regional and national levels to improve information and data on the labor market. It also marked a
public promise by African leaders to prioritize job creation and the fight against poverty by cementing
them to the core of African economic policy (Oumarou, 2013).

Though African countries had been producing some relevant labor market data prior to Ouagadougou,
statistics systems were considered to be sub-par and, according to observers, the state of statistics had
even been deteriorating since the 1970’s and 1980’s (AU, ECA, ADB, 2010, p. 4). Prior to 2004, the LMIS
development agenda was filed under a multitude of more general initiatives to develop the Africa
Statistical System (AfricanSS), an umbrella term coining the partnership composed of Regional Economic
Communities (RECs), national statistical systems and regional and international organizations working
on African statistics.

Recognizing that their countries’ existing statistical systems were failing to inform stakeholders –
especially policymakers – on relevant labor market data, each leader present at the 2004 Ouagadougou
Summit thus committed to developing both the scope and capacity of their respective LMIS. They
pledged to develop LMIS that would sufficiently and adequately collect and capture the characteristics,
dynamics and tendencies of the actual labor market to help build more effective poverty reduction and
employment policies (African Union, 2011).

In 2015, African Heads of State reasserted this commitment, through the Ouagadougou +10 Declaration
and Plan of Action on Employment, Poverty Eradication and Inclusive Development. The ambition is now
to elevate the roles of labor market institutions and LMIS as “important components of national
economic development planning”. The resulting First Five-Year Priority Programme on Employment,
Poverty Eradication, and Inclusive Development (2015-19) aims "to strengthen the role and
management of Labor Market Institutions (LMIs) and Information Systems (LMIS) as important
components of national economic development planning." (African Union, 2015). In particular,

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 61

"stronger, functional and harmonized LMIS in place at continental, regional and Member State levels"
are one of the key results of the programme (African Union, 2015).

The development of the African Statistics System 1990-2006

Several initiatives contributed to the development of the AfricanSS over more than a decade. The
Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHaSA) – a joint strategy by the African Union
Commission (AUC), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Development Bank
(AfDB) on which the following section will elaborate further – best summarizes the most important of
these (p. 4-8):

 1990: the Addis Ababa Plan of Action for Statistical Development in Africa (AAPA) was adopted
by the ECA Conference of Ministers and encouraged the development of National Statistical
Systems (NSS).
 1997: the General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) was launched by the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, strengthening collection capacities on a number of
macroeconomic and socio-economic indicators.
 2002: the International Comparison Program for Africa (ICP-Africa) aimed to build capacity in
Africa for statistics in order to allow for better cross-country comparisons in purchasing power
parity.
 2004: the Marrakech Action Plan for Statistics (MAPS) recommended that States, in order to
develop their statistical systems, elaborate and adopts National Strategies for the Development
of Statistics (NSDS).
 2006: the Reference Regional Strategic Framework for Statistical Capacity Building in Africa
(RRSF) built on MAPS, but was particularly focused on the implementation of NSDS; by 2009,
NSDS with LMIS improvement objectives were implemented or being implemented in virtually
all African countries (African Union, 2012).

Despite these efforts, and the commitments outlined within the 2004 Ouagadougou Declaration, the
AUC, UNECA and AfDB recognize in the SHaSA that AfricanSS is still plagued by institutional and
organizational weaknesses. These include: low political prioritization and funding for statistics;
inadequate institutional capacity, coordination and information sharing; insufficient resources; and poor
data and knowledge management, data quality and analysis, and dissemination processes (AU, ECA,
ADB, 2010).

The 2009 African Charter on Statistics and the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa

Today, Africa’s high-level commitment to the development of statistics is cemented in the African
Charter of Statistics (ACS), adopted during the second ordinary session of Heads of States of the AU,
held in Addis Ababa in February, 2009. ACS provides the legal framework for statistics development in
Africa and “encourages African policy makers to use statistics as a base for policy formulation,
monitoring and evaluation and decision-making” (African Union, 2012, p. 44). The AUC as the body
charged with spearheading regional integration processes and Africa’s development overall, is leading
continent-wide efforts to harmonize statistical systems together with UNECA and AfDB.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 62

The ACS builds on prior statistics initiatives listed above, as well as on the United Nations Fundamental
Principles of Official Statistics. It establishes six principles for national statistics systems, which are:

1. Professional independence;
2. Quality of data;
3. Mandate for data collection and resources;
4. Dissemination of data;
5. Protection of individual data, information sources and respondents; and
6. Coordination and cooperation (AU, ECA, ADB, 2010).

The ACS calls for a harmonized approach to statistics in order to measure progress towards achieving
continental-wide social, economic, political and cultural integration—a long-held goal of African leaders
(AU, ECA, ADB, 2010). As of December 2012, however, the Charter had only been signed by 21 counties
despite having been described as “an essential tool for statistical development in Africa” (African Union,
2012).

To help implement the Charter, AU member states adopted the Strategy for the Harmonization of
Statistics in Africa (SHaSA) in July 2009 in Libya. Each country’s NSDS is supposed to be aligned with the
SHaSA, which seeks to:

1. Produce quality statistics for Africa;

2. Coordinate the production of quality statistics for Africa;
3. Build sustainable institutional capacity in the African Statistical System; and
4. Promote a culture of quality decision-making.

The African Statistical Commission (StatCom Africa) composed of the Heads of National Statistics
Organizations and which held its first meeting in January 2008 was designated the steering committee in
charge of mainstreaming the ACS in African states and implementing the SHaSA. StatCom Africa reports
to the Ministers of Finance of UNECA member states.

On the Labor Market Statistics working area comprising LMIS development, the AUC is the lead agency
(UNECA and AfDB are leads on other areas such as national accounts or investments). Its' LMIS
Coordination and Harmonization Framework Project (see below for more details) is the main channel of
AUC's work in the area. This prioritization is aligned to the call of Heads of State who in Malabo, in June
2011 adopted a Declaration on Youth Employment by which they committed themselves to: “Maintain,
extend and harmonize LMIS in support of employment policy formulation, implementation and
evaluation; improve and increase responsiveness of the education and training systems to current and
future labor market needs in order to address the pervasive and structural skills mismatch; ... and
achieve policy coherence in National and Regional Certification Frameworks for Education and
Vocational Training” (African Union, 2011)

ILO, LMIS and the Decent Work Agenda

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 63

As the main organization working on labor issues internationally, the ILO is extensively involved in LMIS
development in Africa as the main provider of technical assistance on labor issues for national
institutions in charge of labor (Ministries, Workforce development agencies). Like in Rwanda, the ILO is
behind the design of the IT system in several states that make up the country's LMIS. The ILO has also
designed a list of Key Indicators on the Labor Market (KILM), classified under eight categories in order to
facilitate labor market analysis (Lisk, 2012).

Since the 2008 ILO declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, the ILO’s work and technical
assistance for developing LMIS have been implemented through the prism of the Decent Work (DW)
agenda and promotes the production and dissemination of DW indicators to monitor and evaluate social
and employment programs (ILO). Four strategic pillars make up the DW agenda: full and productive
employment, rights at work, social protection and the promotion of social dialogue (International
Labour Organization, 2012). These pillars are organized within the ILO Framework on the Measurement
of DW, which covers ten areas of statistical indicators corresponding to the four pillars. These are:

 Employment opportunities
 Adequate earnings and productive work
 Decent working time
 Combining work, family and personal life
 Work that should be abolished
 Stability and security of work
 Equal opportunity and treatment in employment
 Safe work environment
 Social security
 Social dialogue, employers’ and workers’ representation

All indicators are extensively detailed in the 2012 Decent Work Indicators Manual (International Labour
Organization, 2012). They illustrate that fulfilling the DW agenda requires measuring the quantity,
quality and distribution of work as well as the conduciveness of the work environment. However,
information on distribution of employment by sector or skill/education to employment matching is
largely absent from ILO’s focus—a critical gap in LMIS development programs supported by ILO in Africa.

Recently though, the ILO is pushing for more data on informal employment with the aim of facilitating
the transition to the formal economy. This is especially done through the International Conference of
Labor Statisticians (ICLS) which in 2012, after establishing the Delhi Group on Informal sector statistics in
1997, elaborated guidelines concerning a statistical definition of informal employment (2003), a
database and manual on measuring informality in 2012 (International Labour Organization, 2013).

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 64

ANNEX 2: OVERVIEW OF LMIS TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Afristat and LMIS

Since its creation, Afristat22 has been actively involved in developing LMIS in Africa, particularly through
the Regional Project for improving labor market statistics and strengthening the management of labor
market information and systems for monitoring poverty in Africa (LMIS-Afristat) project, supported by
the African Capacity Building Foundation and the RECAP project summarized below.

Aside from its regional objectives, the LMIS-Afristat project has national components in five target
countries (Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia), wherein national agencies are responsible for
implementation. These include: the National Employment Fund (Cameroon); the Observatoire de
l'emploi et de la Formation (Mali); the National Manpower Unit (Nigeria); the LMI Unit of the
Department of Labor, Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social (Uganda); and the Planning Unit of the
Ministry of Labor and Social Security (Zambia).

Since 2004, the LMIS-Afristat project has sought to remedy what was perceived as the “catastrophic
situation of statistics” in these five target countries where Labor Market data was “sparse, scattered, not
harmonized nor consistent with any standard in terms of definitions and concepts.” Now evolving into
its 11th year, the project continues to aim for improving labor market information production and
dissemination for better public policy formulation and to strengthen poverty monitoring systems. At the
national level, focus has been on building the capacity of governments, social partners and institutions
to ensure regular collection, analysis and dissemination of information relating to the labor market. (Le
Partenariat Afrique-UE, 2012). National project activities have included (Afristat, 2016):

 Raising awareness on the need to improve LMIS;

 Improving LMIS systems by organizing information providers in networks, by better managing
databases and systems and by strengthening the capacity for analysis; and
 Better utilizing existing information to create analysis more useful for specific user types.

A regional project unit assists national activities by (Afristat, 2016):

 Building a network of regional and sub regional organizations working on labor statistics and
poverty reduction: WAEMU, CAEMU, SADC, etc. to ensure synergies and economies of scale
 Setting up a regional database on methodology, the tools and instruments for the collection,
analysis of poverty and labor data. The idea is to encourage the sharing of experiences and best
practices and experiences between national statistics units and to promote knowledge and

22Afristat is an institution based in Bamako, created in 1993, whose initial members are the 14 countries of the Franc Zone; the
French government financed its establishment. Currently, Afristat relies on a mix of member state contributions and grants from
international organizations such as the ILO who entrust the organization with continent-wide, regional or national project
management in the field of statistics development (Le Partenariat Afrique-UE, 2012).

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 65

 know-how on harmonization of indicators, concepts and methods. A training manual on
developing and implementing LMIS was published in 2007 and contains useful guidelines.
 Compiling a regional report based on national information.

Strengthening Capacity for the Production and Analysis of Decent Work Indicators (RECAP23)

Implemented by ILO’s International Training Centre (ITC) in partnership with Afristat and with financial
support from the European Union, the RECAP project aims to improve LMIS for formulation,
implementation and monitoring of public policy to promote decent work.

Implemented with national project components in selected countries in Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso,
Mali, Senegal) and Latin America, the RECAP project ran for three years (2010-13) and involved, first, the
organization of a workshop on analyzing and measuring decent work, technical and institutional reviews
of LMIS and the preparation of an advanced template survey (International Labour Organization, 2016).
The tools and methods developed were then validated regionally before being disseminated nationally
through trainings.

One of the key project outcomes was a study on Senegal’s LMIS system24 prepared by Afristat and
published in 2012 by the ILO's International Training Centre within the framework of the RECAP project
(Centre International de Formation, 2011). The study analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the
existing LMIS of Senegal and the country's institutional capacities to generate labor market data,
especially decent work indicators. It proposes a plan to build technical and institutional capacity in the
country to improve LMIS in Senegal.

Labor Market Harmonization and Coordination Framework Project

As leader of the labor statistics working group of the SHaSA, the Labor Market Harmonization and
Coordination Framework Project (LMHCFP) is the AUC's main vehicle to develop AU member states’
LMIS, to improve national employment prospects and advance African integration for which an effective
and harmonized LMIS is imperative. The project results from the 2010 organization of the capacity

23 Renforcer les Capacités pour la Production et l'Analyse des Indicateurs du travail décent (RECAP)

24Revue technique et institutionnelle sur les systèmes d’information sur le marché du travail (SIMT) (Centre International de
Formation, 2011)

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 66

building and planning workshop on the “Harmonization and Coordination of the LMIS in Africa" and
several consultations held with key stakeholders.

The vision of the project is to improve the labor and employment policy setting, monitoring and
evaluation processes in Africa. More specifically, its objectives are to:

 define a set of key labor indicators aligned with the Ouagadougou declarations action plans
 facilitating the harmonization, coordination and coherence of the labor and employment data
collection, treatment, analysis and dissemination at all levels
 ensuring a regular production of labor harmonized and coordinated labor statistics 

 promoting awareness of, and accessibility to reliable, affordable and accurate
labor/employment data to all the stakeholders; and 

 enhancing technical and institutional capacity of each states' LMIS (African Union, 2011)

Achievements thus far include the production a minimum list of labor, employment and TVET indicators
(with support from the UNDP West Africa Regional Centre), a harmonized questionnaire for labor force
survey, a methodological guide for labor force survey, harmonized questionnaire for establishment and
for the informal economy surveys and a Plan of Action (2012-2016) for the implementation of the LMIS-
HCFP (African Union, 2012).

Enhance Labor Opportunities to Improve Social Environment (ELOISE) Project

The ELOISE project (2010-2012) funded by the EU has sought to compare European LMIS with analysis of
Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco and Peru LMIS. Its' approach has been to promote a more local approach to LMIS
as well as sharing good practices between targeted countries. One of the main project outcomes has
been the publication of a comparative report on the LMIS of Ivory Coast, Morocco and Peru (Zito, 2011).

Regional Economic Communities and LMIS

Through their Regional Integrated Employment Policy Frameworks, Regional Economic Communities
(RECs) recognize the shortcomings of their Member States' LMIS and ensuing problems for planning,
monitoring and harmonizing LMIS.

The Ouagadougou +10 Declaration highlights the leadership role REC's should play in monitoring and
evaluating productive employment and labor migration within the framework of regional and inter
regional cooperation. It acknowledges, though, that this will require capacity building for RECs and
Member States "to enable local authorities to promote local economic development and employment"
(African Union, 2015). The process has started: in WAEMU, a Sub-regional Observatory on Employment
and Vocation Training (SOEVT) is being implemented and the ECOWAS has plans to establish an LMIS at
Regional level that should contribute to the development of regional strategies on employment.

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 67

ANNEX 3: INTERVIEWEES
The objectives of the interviews were to:

 assess awareness on the availability of labor market information in the country and on the
measures taken by international and national institutions to promote LMIS;
 obtain opinions on (i) the main obstacles for improving employment opportunities, in particular
for youth and women, and (ii) on the challenges faced in collecting, analyzing, disseminating and
using information on the labor market; and
 discuss opportunities for improving the flow and usefulness of information on the labor market.

Interviews were conducted with the representatives from the ministries of labor and employment,
national statistics office, employer/private sector associations. The interviews listed below were carried
out by phone or Skype during May-June 2015.

Rwanda:

a) Mr Dominique Habimana, Director, Statistical Methods, Research and Publication Unit and Mr
James Byiringiro, Team Leader for Labor Statistics, National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda
(NISR), May 6, 2015
b) Mr Pacifique Karinda, LMIS Team Lead, Ministry of Public Service and Employment (MIFOTRA),
May 10, 2015
c) Mr Antoine Manzi Rutayisire, Director of Advocacy, Trade and Labor relations, Private Sector
Foundation (PSF), May 13, 2015

Cameroon:

d) Mr Vincent Kouete, Head, Department for economic affairs, Cameroon Inter-Employers'

Association (GICAM), May 15, 2015

Botswana:

e) Mr Dichaba Molobe, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Botswana Chamber of Commerce

(BOCCIM), June 1, 2015

A Roadmap for the Development of Labor Market Information Systems 68