To fill the void in up-to-date labor statistics for Latin America, the Inter-American Development Bank’s Research Department has developed the innovative online publication, Compás Laboral, or Labor Compass.

Intended as a guide for analysts and policymakers on recent labor market trends, this user-friendly service reports high-frequency labor statistics in graphical format rather than text, providing a visual panorama of current labor trends in the region’s key economies.

Descriptions of each country’s labor market situation include three main groups of information.The first describes the structure of the labor market and details the impact of changes in inflation and growth on employment and unemployment. Data from household surveys processed by the Social Information Service (SIS) on the changes in the structure of employment by type of worker (registered wage-earner, unregistered wage-earner, self-employed, etc), and by sector of activity during the last decade are also included in this section.

The second component includes updated information on quantities in the labor market, specifically short-term changes in employment and unemployment trends. Information on rates of activity, employment, unemployment, underemployment and registration, as well as estimates of the net generation of employment by period are also detailed.

The final section deals with prices in the labor market, including changes in real and minimum wages by group and estimates of labor costs per unit of output. Explanations of the various indicators are included in a glossary and in handy pop-up boxes.

While the publication currently only displays information for the region’s seven largest economies- Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela-it will expand coverage to other countries as more labor statistics become available. To stay on top of current regional trends, Compás Laboral will be updated three times per year.