Globalization, employment relations and human resources indicators in ten developed market economies: international data sets

Abstract

This paper provides statistical information on internationalization, human resources and labour market outcomes in ten important developed market economies (DMEs). Such data are useful for practitioners and academics who are interested in international HRM. The article's aim is to provide easily accessible statistical tables of selected characteristics, which can be used to draw initial comparisons between countries and to test competing accounts of the impact of globalization on national patterns of employment relations. It includes standard sources so readers can elaborate and update these data.

Prof. Greg Bamber (address for correspondence), Director, Graduate School of Management (GSM) Griffith University, Queensland, 4111, Australia (tel: [phone]; fax: [phone]; e-mail: [email protected]). Shaun Ryan and Nick Wailes, Work and Organisational Studies Discipline, Sydney University, Australia.

1 For more extensive international data sets and discussion see Bamber et al. (2004). The websites associated with this book provide up-to-date links to such data sources: www.sagepub.co.uk/book.aspx?pid=106016 or www.allenandunwin.com/employmentrelations/home.asp

Keywords:

• Globalization
• economic and labour market data
• employment relations
• employment
• human resources
• unemployment
• gender
• international trade
• investment
• labour standards
• unionism
• working time
• labour costs
• industrial disputes

Notes

Prof. Greg Bamber (address for correspondence), Director, Graduate School of Management (GSM) Griffith University, Queensland, 4111, Australia (tel: [phone]; fax: [phone]; e-mail: [email protected]). Shaun Ryan and Nick Wailes, Work and Organisational Studies Discipline, Sydney University, Australia.

1 For more extensive international data sets and discussion see Bamber et al. (2004). The websites associated with this book provide up-to-date links to such data sources: www.sagepub.co.uk/book.aspx?pid=106016 or www.allenandunwin.com/employmentrelations/home.asp

2 For examples of the simple globalization approach see, for example, Ohmae (1995) . For discussions about its implications for employment relations, see Tilly (1995) , Campbell (1997) and Jacoby (1995) .

3 Table 2 shows GDP at (a) current prices and exchange rates and (b) current prices and PPPs. Exchange rates seldom reflect the purchasing power of different currencies. Exchange rates are often affected by influences unrelated to the values of any goods and services. These influences include, among other things, currency trading and relative interest rates among countries. PPPs are currency conversions that allow output in different currency units to be expressed in a common unit of value. A purchasing power parity is a relative price which measures the number of units of country B's currency that are needed in country B to purchase a basket of goods similar to that which one unit of country A's currency will purchase in country A. In other words, PPPs eliminate the differences in price levels between countries in the process of conversion. For the tables in this paper, country A is the USA. For more details see OECDh and US BLS (2001) .

4 One useful way of doing this is by using the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) system. The ISIC system provides a standard classification of economic activities of entities by arranging them according to the activity they carry out. For more details on the ISIC system, including major divisions and recent revisions to the classification system, see United Nations Statistics Division (2003) . The services category is now very heterogeneous as it includes all the industries that do not fit one of the first two categories, including public administration, finance, property and business services, community services, recreation, personal and other services and many more. Therefore, some commentators suggest that it would be appropriate to subdivide services into further categories such as: tertiary, consisting of tangible economic services; quaternary, comprising data processing; and quinary, covering unpaid work and homework, where pay is secondary, and professional services of a quasi-domestic nature. However, as yet the authorities do not provide a sufficiently comprehensive set of such data nor do we have a sufficiently well-developed conceptual framework within which to gather and analyse them. As an additional complication, the distinctions between categories are not always precise due to classification difficulties and because some people work in more than one sector. Moreover, the trend towards subcontracting and the growth of employment agencies have tended to distort the data and so have exaggerated the growth of services.

5 For a detailed discussion of the growth of atypical work and its gendered nature, see OECDa (2002: ch. 2), also De Grip et al. (1997) .

6 For discussion of national differences in the measurement of unemployment rates see OECDb . The OCED generally uses standardized unemployment rates based on international standards. Different methods of collecting unemployment statistics can show different results between figures of registered job-seekers and figures based on unemployment surveys and other methods. See also ILO (1995) .

7 For the full text of each of the ILO Conventions and details about the ILO Convention system, see ILOb .

8 Table 25 also illustrates that there is not a Consistent relationship between average weekly hours and annual hours worked across countries. This reflects national differences in data-collection methods as well as in their customs in relation to annual leave and statutory holidays. Some countries collect data on average hours actually worked, while others collect data on average hours paid for. Hours actually worked include normal hours of work, overtime, stand-by hours at place of work and short rest periods at the workplace including tea or coffee breaks. Hours paid for comprise hours actually worked and, depending on varying custom and practice, may also include factors such as paid annual leave, paid public holidays, paid sick leave, meal breaks and time spent on travel from home to work and vice versa. These broad differences are indicated by the summary notes against each country in Table 25 . Relatively long annual hours in the USA are due mainly to annual leave entitlements, which are nearly three weeks shorter than the European average, combined with a relatively low level of absence from work.

9 Comparative data on weekly earnings are available on the ILO's LABOURSTA online database (http://laboursta.ilo.org/). For some countries these data are disaggregated by gender.