ILO Department of Statistics Measurement of the informal employment and employment in the informal sector September 2011 ILO Department of Statistics (T. Habiyakare, ILO DWT- Pretoria;

ILO Department of Statistics 2 Contents Main challenges in Africa Technical guidance in the measurement of informal employment & employment in the informal sector Current ILO activities of support on the measurement of IE & EIS.

ILO Department of Statistics 3 Challenges & Gaps in Africa Major challenges in the measurement of informal employment & employment in the informal sector in Africa: 1.Lack of/low reference to international guidelines; 2.No (or no use of) harmonized definition(s) in African countries, despite efforts of regional bodies such as ECA (ACS) and AFRISTAT; 3.Data collection exercises on labour statistics: remain insufficient in quantity, and in quality of collected data while LFS constitute the main data collection tool to measure IE & EIS; 4.Insufficient technical & institutional capacity: for the analysis of informal employment & EIS.

ILO Department of Statistics 4 Challenges & Gaps in Africa Labour Statistics Introduction: The reality...

ILO Department of Statistics 5 Technical guidance: defining informal employment & employment in the IS ILO’s main concern, distinguish between: 1.Informal employment (17 th ICLS, 2003); 2.Employment in the informal sector (15 th ICLS, 1993); 3.Advise: with or excluding agriculture; details on IE & EIS on ILO web sites and AFRISTAT notes.

Measurement of employment in the informal sector (1) Best source: Household survey (LFS) Questions needed on –Industry –Status in employment –Institutional sector –(Type of accounts) –Business registration Additional questions useful on –Number of persons usually working in the only, or largest if more than one, establishment of the enterprise (in size classes) –If few: Exact number (by sex and status in employment) –Type of work place

Measurement of employment in the informal sector (2) If ISIC, Rev. 4 is used for coding, question on industry identifies persons –working in agriculture, forestry and fishing (Section A), –employed as domestic employees by households (Group 970), –or engaged in the production of goods for own final use by their household (Group 981). Question on form of registration of the enterprise: covers usually the criteria of –non-registration of the enterprise, –kind of ownership, –legal organisation, –and type of accounts.

Measurement of informal employment (1) Additional questions are needed only for the identification of informal jobs of employees. For all other status-in-employment categories the classification of jobs as informal follows directly from the status in employment of the job and/or the characteristics of the enterprise, possibly with exception of the jobs held by own- account workers, employers and members of producers’ cooperatives in non-subsistence agriculture.

Measurement of informal employment (2) Best source: Household survey (LFS) Questions needed on –Status in employment –Employment in informal sector enterprises –Informal jobs of employees Additional questions useful on –Type of employment contract/agreement –Contract duration –Income tax deduction from wage/salary

Model survey questions (1)

Model survey questions (2)

Model survey questions (3)

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ILO Department of Statistics 14 Informal sector employment

Informal employment ILO Department of Statistics 15

ILO Department of Statistics 16 Current ILO activities of support on informal employment (1) 1.Update of statistics on informal employment and informal sector employment (global- distributed); 2.Contribution to the update of the analytical report “Women and Men in the Informal Economy 2011: A Statistical Picture” with WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing); 3.Collaboration with ADB in the preparation of a guide on "Collecting labour force statistics through household surveys: A Guidebook for African countries" which will include a chapter on how to collect information on IE and EIS through LFS;

ILO Department of Statistics 17 4.Manual on Surveys of Informal Employment and Informal Sector (is in its final review stages); 5.Technical assistance to countries with the design and review of LFS, including the incorporation of questions to measure employment in the informal sector and informal employment; 6.Development of model LFS materials, including questions to measure employment in the informal sector and informal employment. Current ILO activities of support on informal employment (2)

ILO Department of Statistics THANK YOU!