Insecurity is partly objective, partly subjective. To develop a strategy for reducing socio economic insecurity, it is necessary to consider both objective and subjective indicators of security. While it may be relatively easy to create objective indices of socio economic security, to create sound indicators that capture subjective elements of socio economic security, effort has to be made to find out what people in different parts of the world, from different social and demographic groups, perceive as the extent of their security or insecurity. It was with this purpose that IFPSES launched its PSS in mid 2000. The objective of the PSS is therefore to:
- Provide an improved understanding of perceived needs of people for policies and institutional support to provide them with basic security.
- Enable the creation of a Decent Work Index, which is crucial to ILO's work.
- Provide important information that can be used to flag security concerns of workers in ILO
- Reports and other documents.