Samantha Watson

Samantha is a Senior Statistician based in the Statistical Standards and Methods Unit, within the ILO Department of Research and Statistics. Samantha is currently leading a five-year programme of work to develop international statistical standards for official statistics on care work. Samantha developed the ILO’s time-use measurement modules for national labour force surveys (LFS), and is part of a team convened to develop and refine survey methods to better capture and characterise informal employment in official statistics. She provides direct technical assistance, training, and capacity building to support the production of statistics on paid and unpaid care work, informality, and data to policy linkage.  

Before joining the ILO in 2020, Samantha held a number of progressively senior positions in academia (and before that central government). Her prior research focussed on agrarian change and rural livelihoods; gendered divisions of time and labour; labour migration; forced labour; population displacement and mobility; and the integration of “big data” (satellite and mobile network operator data) within official statistics. 

Samantha holds a PhD in Social Statistics (Political Economy Route) from the University of Manchester, UK.