Abstract
It is obviously important to harmonize national statistical definitions of employment, unemployment and inactivity – both for general accuracy and for international data comparability. This concise overview compares the statistical practices of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey in this respect. While all of these territories and countries rely on labour force surveys to collect the required data, they exhibit discrepancies as to the definitions, classification and labour market status of specific groups, particularly in regard to the statistical category of unemployment. The paper concludes with a plea for remedying these remaining discrepancies through further harmonization.