Labor Statistics: Informal Employment

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Labor Statistics Informal Employment

• UNECE Statistical Division

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Informal Employment

• Definitions
• Initially, the concept of the informal sector was
  an analytical concept for research purposes.
• Now, it is being used as a statistical concept
  for data collection purposes, referring to
  activities not covered or insufficiently
  covered, by the existing traditional sources of
  statistical data.

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Informal Employment

• What does informal mean?
• The informal economy refers to all economic
  activities by workers and economic units that are
  not covered or insufficiently covered by formal
  arrangements
• Informal sector enterprises
• Unincorporated enterprises enterprises owned by
  individuals or households that are not
  constituted as separated legal entities
  independently of their owners, and for which no
  complete accounts are available that would
  permit a financial separation of the production
  activities of the enterprise from the other
  activities of its owner
• Size is below a certain threshold (five
  employees?)
• All or at least some of the goods or services
  produced are meant for sale or barter. Market
  orientation
• Defined by national circumstances
• Lack of registration
• Enterprises engaged in agriculture could be
  included but good to identified them separately
  from the non-agriculture enterprises

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Informal Employment

• Howinformal relate to employment?
• There are two informal concepts that affect
  employment
• Employment in the informal sector
• Informal employment

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Informal Employment

• How doesinformal relate to employment?
• Employment in the informal sector
• all persons who, during a given reference
  period, were employed in at least one of the
  informal sector enterprise, irrespective of their
  status in employment and whether it was their
  main or a secondary job
•  

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Informal Employment

• How doesinformal relate to employment?
• Informal Employment
• Persons employed in the informal sector persons
  employed in informal jobs.
• Informal jobs
• non-standard, atypical, irregular, precarious,
  unprotected
• not covered by existing regulations (social
  protection, benefits
• The first criterion is based on the production
  unit, the second criterion on the type of job

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How doesinformal relate to employment?
Informal Employment

• Employment in the informal sector and Informal
  employment are concepts, which refer to different
  aspects of the informalisation of employment
  and to different targets for policy-making. They
  are both useful for analytical purposes and,
  hence, complement each other. Statistics users
  and others often tend to confuse the two concepts
  because they are unaware of the different
  observation units involved enterprises on the
  one had, and jobs on the other.

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Informal Employment
Total Employment
Informal employment
Informal jobs in formal enterprises and households
Employment in the informal sector
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An example Moldova 2003
Informal Employment
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Informal Employment

• Status in employment and informal employment
• Employees
• Employers
• Own-account workers
• Contributing family workers
• Members of producers cooperatives

Self-employment
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Informal Employment

• Informal Employment comprises
• Own-account workers and employers employed in
  their own informal sector enterprises.
• Contributing family workers, irrespective of
  whether they work in formal or informal sector
  enterprises.
• Employees holding informal jobs, whether employed
  by formal sector enterprises, informal sector
  enterprises, or as paid domestic workers by
  households.
• Members of informal producers cooperatives.
• Own-account workers engaged in the production of
  goods exclusively for own final use by their
  household (such as subsistence farming or
  do-it-yourself construction of own dwellings)

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Informal employment and status in employment
Informal Employment
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Informal Employment

• Informal employment consists of a large and
  diverse category of workers which can be divided
  in to more homogenous categories according to the
  status of the employment.
• Informal self employment
• Informal wage employment

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Informal employment and status in employment in
Moldova 2003
Informal Employment
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Informal Employment

• Gender and informal employment
• Informal employment comprises one half to
  three-quarters of non-agricultural employment in
  developing countries.
• Data disaggregated by informal and formal
  employment and employment status provide new
  information on the difference in the
  opportunities of women and men in the labor
  market
• Informal employment is generally a larger source
  of employment for women than formal employment
• In most developing countries it is a larger
  source of employment for women than for men
• Women are concentrated in the more precarious
  types of informal employment
• Average earnings from these types of informal
  employment are low

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Informal Employment

• In developed countries, informal employment
  exists and is growing
• Examples include
• Own-account self employment,
• part-time employment
• temporary wage employment
• including fixed term/contract, casual, seasonal
  and on-call work and work through a temporary
  agency

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Informal Employment
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Informal Employment

• Increasing importance in countries in transition
• Previously, informal activities were illegal and
  even forbidden.
• Now these activities have an increasing role in
  creating jobs, providing income, and producing
  goods and services.

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Informal Employment
Share of formal and informal employment by sex
and industry, Moldova 2003
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Issues in data collection and dissemination
Informal Employment

• Data collected through the Labor Force Surveys
  can be used to address informal sector and
  informal employment through a special module
• If questions on the size of the enterprise and
  whether the enterprise is registered are asked,
  then statistics on employment in the informal
  sector can be prepared.
• Additional questions on the nature of the job can
  identify informal jobs

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• Thank you !