# 3.1 Labor force data

Our main data source is the Database on Immigrants in OECD countries (DIOC), com ~~-~~ piled jointly by the OECD and the World Bank. The database is the output of a project with the purpose of compiling highly standardized population census and register data on immigrants and natives in OECD countries, based on the 2000/01 census rounds. It was subsequently extended to include a large number of no ~~n-~~ OECD countries and the extension is referred to as DIOC ~~-E~~ . The 2010 DIOC dataset draws again primarily from national censuses and population registers, supplemented with labor force surveys where necessary.

Significant efforts were made to standardize the data since the original sources con ~~-~~ tain significant variation due to differences in national data collection and dissemination policies (Arslan et al, 2015). Censuses survey the entire population or a representative sub ~~-~~ sample, as is the case with the micro ~~-~~ census of Germany, at a single point in time.’ For each OECD country, DIOC provides aggregate stocks by educational attainment and various age groups, gender, labor market status, and migration status.* Using this in ~~-~~ formation, we are able to distinguish the nativ ~~e-~~ born from the foreign ~~-~~ born, the tertiary educated from the non ~~-t~~ ertiary educated, and older from younger workers in each OECD country, and to determine the size of each labor group. Since the dataset is in a bilateral format, we can also construct the emigrant labor stocks of the OECD countries. We should emphasize that the bilateral nature of the DIOC (and DIOC ~~-E~~ ) data is a very unique and valuable feature. Otherwise we could not obtain emigration numbers from the censuses of individual destination countries as they only give information on people who are present at the time, not of those who have left the country.

Table 1 presents age distribution by migration status across OECD countries and the age distribution of emigrants from these countries for the year 2010. The first set of columns refer to nativ ~~e-~~ born individuals, followed by a set of columns pertaining to immigrants. Two key observations emerge from Table 1: (i) immigrants and emigrants are generally younger than natives; and (ii) the age distribution of immigrants and na ~~-~~ tives differ across all countries. We see that in countries such as Japan, Italy, Germany and Greece, the 65+ years old comprise over a quarter of the population above age 25. In almost all countries, they account for no less than 15 percent of the population. In comparison, migrants are younger in most of these countries. A close inspection of Ta ~~-~~ ble 1 reveals that the shares of natives between the ages of 45 and 64 also exceed the

> “Censuses often focus on the resident population, whether they are regular or irregular. ®The DIOC database allows identifying the originxeducationxage dimension, or the originxagexstatus dimension. For each country of destination, we extract the labor market status of young and old workers from the second and compute the ol ~~d-~~ t ~~o-~~ young ratios of participation and employment rates. We then use these ratios to characterize the labor market status of workers by origin, education and age.

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