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Statistics on the informal economy
In many countries, informal employment represents a significant part of the economy and labour market and plays a major role in production, employment creation and income generation. However, informality puts workers at a higher risk of vulnerability and precariousness. Indeed, informality has a strong adverse impact on the adequacy of earnings, occupational safety and health and working conditions in general.
In the context of fragmented labour markets or insufficient social safety nets or where wages and/or working hours in formal jobs are low, workers may resort to informal employment. Thus, key labour indicators such as the unemployment rate and time-related underemployment would fail to convey a full picture of the labour market.
Statistics on informal employment provide valuable information on the quality of employment and are crucial to a comprehensive understanding of the labour market, in both developing and developed countries.
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Paid employment vs vulnerable employment
Find out the latest trends in employment by status category and how paid employment compares to vulnerable employment around the world in Paid employment vs vulnerable employment, the third issue of our series Spotlight on Work Statistics.
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Methods
Indicator description: Informal employment and informal sector
Indicator descriptions provide a concise overview of concepts and definitions, uses, sources and limitations.
Decent Work and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Guidebook on SDG Labour Market Indicators
This Guidebook provides a detailed overview of the labour market indicators included in the Sustainable Development Goals Global Indicator Framework. It is intended to serve as a manual of best practices for calculating and interpreting the SDG labour market indicators, with a view to monitoring progress made at the national and international levels towards the achievement of the SDGs.
Decent Work Indicators - Guidelines for producers and users of statistical and legal framework indicators
Decent work is central to sustainable poverty reduction and is a means for achieving equitable, inclusive and sustainable development. The ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization recommends the establishment of appropriate indicators to monitor the progress made in the implementation of the ILO Decent Work Agenda. The ILO is supporting member States through technical assistance and capacity building at national, sub-regional and regional levels in this regard.
Measuring informality: A statistical manual on the informal sector and informal employment
This manual is intended for national statistical offices and other producers of statistics planning programmes to produce statistics on the informal sector and informal employment. The manual provides technical guidance on implementing international standards, presenting alternative measurement methodologies along with examples based on national experience, and includes guidelines for the dissemination of statistics on the informal sector and informal employment.
Guidelines concerning a statistical definition of informal employment
Adopted by the 17th ICLS (2003), these guidelines complement the resolution concerning statistics of employment in the informal sector of the 15th ICLS, and encourages countries to test the conceptual framework on which they are based.
Resolution concerning statistics of employment in the informal sector
Adopted by the 15th ICLS (1993), this resolution provides technical guidelines as a basis for the development of suitable definitions and classifications of informal sector activities and the design of appropriate data collection methods and programmes, in the hopes such standards will enhance the international comparability of statistics.
The ILO established a working group for the revision of the standards for statistics on informality. The revision will lead to the replacement of the existing standards of informality with a coherent set of statistical standards which conceptually and operationally define the different concepts necessary for measurement of work and economic activity the informal economy.