Third meeting of the Working Group for the Revision of the statistical standards of informality

The current statistical standards of informality includes the Resolution concerning statistics of employment in the informal sector that defines the informal sector and employment in the informal sector as well as the Guidelines concerning a statistical definition of informal employment, which defines informal employment.

The establishment of the Working Group reflects the strong consensus among delegates at the 20th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) on the need to revise the statistical standards of informality, in order to address the known problems with the current standards and to increase global coverage and harmonization. A revision is also needed to reflect the adoption at the 19th ICLS of the Resolution concerning statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization, which recognizes different forms of work, both paid and unpaid, and the adoption at the 20th ICLS of the Resolution concerning statistics of work relationships that provides a new classification of status in employment and a broader classification of status at work.

The purpose of this Working Group is to support and advise the ILO in the preparation of a draft resolution to replace the current statistical standards of informality. This resolution will be presented for consideration at the 21st ICLS, which is expected to take place in 2023.

Coordinated by the ILO, the group includes representatives from national statistical systems, international agencies and development partners. It meets annually with four subgroups established to support the work in between annual sessions.

For more information, please contact Michael Frosch, Department of Statistics (frosch@ilo.org).

Reports and other relevant documents

• Discussion paper
• Meeting 1 report
• Meeting 2 report
• Conceptual framework draft (ver. 27_08_2021)
• Draft Resolution concerning Statistics on the Informal Economy

List of working group countries and agencies

Countries

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Gambia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam

 Observers

AFRISTAT, DIAL, GCC-STAT, CISSTAT, DATA 2X, EUROFOUND, EUROSTAT, FAO, OECD, IMF, SPC, UNHCR, UN Statistics Division, UN Women, WIEGO, World Bank