Measuring the information society

Abstract

The development of a global Knowledge-based Society has presented huge new challenges to statisticians as occupations, businesses, production and work processes and labour market behaviour are transformed at accelerating speed. In the absence of reliable data, the public debate is all too often based on anecdote, hype or misinformation. This book is about measuring the impact of the Information Society on work, organisations, individuals and institutions and how statisticians can keep pace with these ever-evolving changes and respond to the new demands for information coming from policy-makers, journalists, academics and other stakeholders. Some of the questions they are expected to answer include: How many companies practice offshore outsourcing and how many jobs are at risk? How many teleworkers are there? How many people work in call centres? How many people use computers at work? How many work in virtual teams? How fast are these trends growing? Which countries are leading these developments and which are lagging behind? Is work really becoming more flexible? And are workers really becoming more mobile? Although it provides answers to some of these questions, the focus of this book is on methods. How can such developments be defined and tracked in ways that combine rigour and international comparability with cost-effectiveness, speed and policy relevance? Drawing on the work of the STILE project, this unique book brings together contributions from leading European academic and independent research institutes and National Statistical Institutes, academic experts and international organisations. The result is a comprehensive overview - indispensable reading for statisticians, researchers or policy-makers with an interest in gaining an accurate insight into the economic and social upheavals accompanying technological change and informing a responsible public debate on the future of work. Contents Measuring the labour market in the New Economy: the work of the STILE project / Monique Ramioul & An Bollen European establishment surveys: obstacles and opportunities on the road to cross-national convergence / Peter Ester, Markus Promberger & Amelia Román Employers’ demand for part-time workers: incidence and motives in Germany and the Netherlands / Piet Allaart & Lutz Bellmann Reflections on mobility in the New Economy / Anders Ekeland A cost benefit assessment of administrative databases and surveys in measuring labour market mobility / Mikael Åkerblom Measuring labour market mobility in the ICT sector / Alex Stimpson & Maarten Tielens Measuring potential offshoring of ICT intensive using occupations / Desirée van Welsum & Graham Vickery Coding and classification of sectors and occupations in the eEconomy / Ursula Huws Occupational profiling in the Information Society / Ben Hövels New occupations in a new economic environment: European similarities and differences / An Bollen & Monique Ramioul How to measure eWork in social surveys / Giovanna Altieri, Francesca della Ratta & Cristina Oteri Telework: the latest figures and what they mean / Joanne Pratt Interplay of technological and organisational innovations: the case of eWork diffusion in the New Member States / Csaba Makó & Miklós Illéssy