Employment and gender differences in the informal economy

1
Employment and gender differences in the
informal economy

• Valentina Stoevska (stoevska_at_ilo.org)
• Department of Statistics
• International Labour Office- Geneva

2

Overview

• Limitations of the current MDG Indicator 3.2
• Growth of the employment in informal sector (IS)/
  informal employment (IE)
• Statistical definitions of the employment in
  informal sector and informal employment
• Some findings re employment in informal economy
• References

3
Limitations of the current MDG Indicator 3.2

• non-agricultural wage employment represents only
  a small portion of total employment,
• contribution of women to the national economy
  underestimated and misrepresented
• difficult to interpret,
• does not reveal that there are different types of
  non-agricultural wage employment

4
Additional indicators

• Employment by sector (agriculture, industry ,
  services),
• Wage employment in agriculture,
• Employment by status in employment (employees,
  employers, contributing family members, etc.),
• Employment in managerial occupations,
• Employment in the informal economy,
• ...
• More comprehensive picture of the women
  situation in the labour market, and changes

5
Reasons to monitor informal employment/
employment in the informal sector

• Growth of the informal economy
• Employment creation, income generation and
  poverty eradication but workers lack legal and
  social protection.
• Informalisation of employment is partly
  attributable to globalisation process
  competitive pressure on enterprises leads to
  mixed-mode labour arrangements (non-standards,
  atypical, irregular, precarious)
• Exists everywhere (incl. industrialised
  countries), and in the formal sector
• Relevance and meaning varies by country

6
Informal sector Motives for participation

• Survival strategy lack of other jobs, obstacles
  to employment in the formal sector, need to
  supplement family income
• Independence,
• Flexible work arrangements,
• Profitable income-earning opportunity,
• Non-compliance
• Regulations, tax payments, social security
  contributions
• ? reduced production costs

7
ICLS Conceptual framework Employment in the
informal economy

• Employment in the IS and informal employment
  refer to different aspects of the
  informalisation of employment
• Employment in IS employment in informal
  enterprises. -defined in terms of
  characteristics of production units/enterprises
  (enterprise based)
• Informal employment employment in informal jobs.
• - defined in terms of characteristics of persons
  or their jobs (job based)
• Employment in the informal economy defined as the
  sum of jobs in the informal sector and of
  informal jobs outside the informal sector.

8
Conceptual frameworkEmployment in the informal
economy
Production units Informal jobs Formal jobs
Informal sector enterprises A B
Other units of production C D
Employment in the informal sector A
B Informal employment A C Informal
employment outside the informal
sector C Employment in the informal economy A
B C
9
Definition of IS enterprises (15th ICLS)

• Private unincorporated enterprises,
• Not constituted as separate legal entities,
• No complete accounts available,
• At least some goods or services produced are
  meant for sale or barter,
• Enterprise size below low threshold,
• Enterprise not registered under specific forms of
  national legislation at national level,
• Engaged in non-agricultural activities.

10
Definition of Informal Employment (17th ICLS)

• Total number of informal jobs carried out
• in formal sector enterprises or
• in informal sector enterprises or
• in households
• during a given reference period.
• Employees are considered to have informal jobs if
  not covered by social security system or not
  entitled to other employment benefits such as
  paid annual or sick leave.

11
Components Informal employment outside informal
sector

• Employees
• In informal jobs in formal sector enterprises,
• Paid domestic workers employed by households.
• Contributing family workers
• Working in formal sector enterprises.
• Own-account workers
• Engaged in goods production exclusively for final
  use by own household (if employed according to
  13th ICLS employment definition).

12
Some findings re employment in informal economy
(based on national LFS data that are processed
by using international definitions of informal
employment/informal sector)
13
(No Transcript)
14
Source ILO, Department of Statistics
15
Informal employment in and outside IS, as of
non-agricultural employment
Source ILO, Department of Statistics
16
Source ILO, Department of Statistics
Share of informal employment in total
non-agricultural employment declines as the
level of development rises.
17
Employment in the informal economy Gender
differences
Informal employment in non-agricultural
activities by sex for selected countries,
Women are more likely than men to have informal
jobs, suggesting that women turn to the informal
jobs more often than men because they lack
opportunities or they face other obstacles to
formal employment.
18
Employment in the informal economy Gender
differences
Informal employment outside informal sector, in
non-agricultural activities, by sex for selected
countries,
Women are more likely than men to have informal
jobs outside the informal sector.
19
Employment in the informal economy Gender
differences
Employment in informal sector, non-agricultural
activities, by sex for selected countries,
Women are less likely than men to have jobs in
informal sector enterprises. Men outnumber women
in informal sector enterprises.
20
Need for further disaggregation e.g. by
geographic region (urban/rural)
21
References

• Resolution concerning statistics of employment in
  the informal sector (adopted by the Fifteenth
  International Conference of Labour
  Statisticians,1993)
• Guidelines concerning a statistical definition of
  informal employment (adopted by the Seventeenth
  International Conference of Labour Statisticians,
  2003)
• http//www.ilo.org/global/statistics-and-database
  s/standards-and-guidelines/lang--en/index.htm
• LABORSTA, an International Labour Office database
  on labour statistics operated by the ILO
  Department of Statistics http//laborsta.ilo.org