Regional research team advances in the analysis of Labor Market Information Systems in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras

On May 23 and 24, 2019, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the regional team of researchers in charge of the study "Analysis of Labor Markets Information Systems in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras: towards a greater integration of labor migration" held their first meeting in San José, Costa Rica. This study is implemented by the Central American Institute for Social Studies and Development (INCEDES), at the request of IOM and ILO, under the framework of the labor migration component of IOM Western Hemisphere Regional Migration Capacity-Building Program funded by the US Department of State.

According to Gustavo Gatica, coordinator of the research team, the importance of the study on labor markets information systems (LMIS) is to know the operation and dynamics of these systems in the countries of study and how these systems are used in a context of migration and labor mobility. LMIS are understood as the set of structures, procedures and institutional mechanisms that provide data that allow to monitor the behavior of the current labor market; the needs of employers in a given period, in different areas of economic activity; it also provides information on the existence of labor force in a country or region according to the profiles required for such economic activities.

Alexandra Bonnie, regional coordinator of the Western Hemisphere Program, emphasized that this research aims to strengthen information management capacities on labor migration in governments and other stakeholders in the countries included in the study, including the preparation of recommendations for policy makers to guarantee that employment policies and migration policies are evidence-based about the needs of labor markets and the migrant population.

One of the relevant aspects of this study is that it is carried out within the framework of the Collaboration Agreement between  IOM and ILO, signed in December 2018. In this regard, Leonardo Ferreira Neves, Deputy Director of the ILO Office for Central America, Haiti, Panama and the Dominican Republic, recognized the need for both United Nations agencies to accompany this research with the extensive experience and information available to their national and regional offices.

This first regional meeting of the research team will allow to discuss the objectives that are intended to be achieved with the study and the development of an uniform theoretical and methodological approach.