The Bulletin of Labour Statistics is published twice a year, in March and September to present articles and notes relevant to the production and analysis of labour statistics, as well as extracts from the ILO database LABORSTA (http://laborsta.ilo.org) giving the most recent time series on employment, unemployment, hours of work, wages and consumer price indices available at the Office.

The purpose of the articles and notes section of the Bulletin is to present work carried out to improve the quality and/or international comparability of labour statistics. The articles and notes will reflect the work of the ILO Bureau of Statistics and others. The editor will consider for publication submitted articles dealing with or illustrating concepts, definitions and classifications used for labour statistics, as well as with methods for data collection, data processing and data analysis.

Each table or group of tables is preceded by an explanatory note, which briefly describes the main characteristics of the series. Fuller details on these series are given in the on-line database LABORSTA as well as in Sources and Methods: Labour Statistics (formerly Statistical Sources and Methods), which deals with the scope of the statistics, the definitions and methods of estimation and other features important for the international comparability of the series. The following ten volumes have been published: Vol. 1: "Consumer Price Indices", third edition; Vol. 2: "Employment, wages, hours of work and labour cost (establishment surveys)", second edition; Vol. 3: "Economically active population, employment, unemployment and hours of work (household surveys)", second edition; Vol. 4: "Employment, unemployment, wages and hours of work (administrative records and related sources)"; Vol. 5: "Total and economically active population, employment and unemployment (population censuses)", second edition; Vol. 6: "Household income and expenditure surveys"; Vol. 7: "Strikes and lockouts"; Vol. 8: "Occupational injuries"; Vol. 9: "Transition countries" and Vol. 10: "Estimates and projections of the economically active population 1950-2010".

In the tables, texts, headings and footnotes are given in English, French and Spanish. The countries are listed by continent according to the list shown in the table "Order of countries, areas and territories".

Sources - The data in the Bulletin are drawn mainly from information supplied to the Office by national statistical services, from official publications or national websites.

Period covered - Whenever possible monthly, quarterly or half-yearly data are given for the last four years, together with corresponding annual figures.

Changes in the tables - When a new series or a revised series is introduced in an issue of the Bulletin, it is identified in the tables by the symbol * and information about the nature of these changes is given in the section "Methodological notes". The temporary deletion of series due to lack of up-to-date information is also indicated in this section. Whenever a series is interrupted and replaced by a new series the break in continuity is indicated by a colored cell separating the two series and by an explanatory footnote.