ILOSTAT Scraper

Extract ILO (International Labour Organization) labour statistics including unemployment rates, employment ratios, labour force participation rates, and more — covering 170+ countries with annual data going back to 1991.

Data is sourced from the ILO Modelled Estimates database (ILOEST) published through the World Bank World Development Indicators (WDI) public REST API. Every record explicitly cites the ILO as its origin.

Features

• 17+ labour indicators — unemployment (total/male/female), employment ratio, labour force participation, self-employment, vulnerable employment, child labour, GDP per worker
• 170+ countries — all World Bank member states
• Annual time series — filter by start/end year (2000–2024)
• Sex breakdown — filter by total, male, or female where data is available
• Browse mode — search available indicators before fetching data
• No authentication required — 100% public API

Input

Field	Type	Description	Example
mode	select	searchIndicators or getIndicatorData	getIndicatorData
indicatorId	string	Indicator code (see table below)	SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS
countryCode	string	ISO3 country code	USA
startYear	integer	Earliest year	2018
endYear	integer	Latest year	2022
sex	select	SEX_T, SEX_M, SEX_F, or "" (all)	SEX_T
maxItems	integer	Max records to return	100

Available Indicators

Indicator ID	Description	Sex
SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS	Unemployment, total (%)	Total
SL.UEM.TOTL.MA.ZS	Unemployment, male (%)	Male
SL.UEM.TOTL.FE.ZS	Unemployment, female (%)	Female
SL.UEM.NEET.ZS	Youth NEET rate, total (%)	Total
SL.TLF.TOTL.IN	Labour force, total persons	Total
SL.TLF.CACT.ZS	Labour force participation rate, total (%)	Total
SL.TLF.CACT.MA.ZS	Labour force participation rate, male (%)	Male
SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS	Labour force participation rate, female (%)	Female
SL.EMP.TOTL.SP.ZS	Employment to population ratio, total (%)	Total
SL.EMP.SELF.ZS	Self-employed, total (%)	Total
SL.EMP.VULN.ZS	Vulnerable employment, total (%)	Total
SL.GDP.PCAP.EM.KD	GDP per person employed (2017 PPP $)	Total

Output

Each record contains:

Field	Type	Description
indicatorId	string	World Bank/ILO indicator code
indicatorLabel	string	Human-readable indicator name
countryCode	string	ISO3 country code
countryName	string	Country name
period	string	Year (e.g. "2022")
value	float	Observed value
sex	string	Sex breakdown (Total, Male, Female)
unit	string	Unit of measurement
category	string	Category (unemployment, employment, etc.)
frequency	string	Data frequency (A = annual)
sourceUrl	string	Source URL
recordType	string	Always "indicator"
scrapedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp

Example Output

{
  "indicatorId": "SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS",
  "indicatorLabel": "Unemployment, total (% of total labour force)",
  "countryCode": "USA",
  "countryName": "United States",
  "period": "2022",
  "value": 3.65,
  "sex": "Total",
  "unit": "% of total labour force",
  "category": "unemployment",
  "frequency": "A",
  "sourceUrl": "https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/",
  "recordType": "indicator",
  "scrapedAt": "2025-01-01T12:00:00+00:00"
}

FAQ

Q: Where does the data come from? A: Data is sourced from the ILO Modelled Estimates database (ILOEST) published through the World Bank WDI public API. The World Bank API explicitly cites the ILO as the source organisation.

Q: How current is the data? A: The World Bank WDI dataset is updated periodically (typically annually). Most indicators have data through 2023–2025.

Q: What country codes should I use? A: Use ISO3 codes as used by the World Bank: USA, GBR, DEU, JPN, CHN, BRA, IND, FRA, etc.

Q: Can I get data for multiple countries at once? A: Run separate actor calls per country, or use maxItems to control volume. A future version will support multi-country batch fetching.

Q: Why are some years missing? A: Some country-indicator combinations have data gaps. The actor only emits observations where a non-null value is available.

Q: Is there a rate limit? A: The World Bank API is public and generous. For large batch jobs, the actor adds small delays between requests.