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© Marcel Crozet/ ILO
© Marcel Crozet/ ILO

International Classifications of Status in Employment and Status at Work (ICSE and ICSaW)

Table of Contents

See also

Introduction

The latest International Classification of Status in Employment (ICSE-18) classifies jobs in employment for pay or profit into ten detailed categories based on the type of authority that the worker is able to exercise in relation to the work performed and the type of economic risk to which the worker is exposed, which then are aggregated according to two alternative classification hierarchies:

  • International Classification of Status in Employment according to type of authority (ICSE-18-A), and
  • International Classification of Status in Employment according to type of economic risk (ICSE-18-R).

Meanwhile, the International Classification of Status at Work (ICSaW-18) provides an organizing framework for statistics classified by status at work. It covers all jobs and work activities in all forms of work, including own-use production work, employment, unpaid trainee work, volunteer work and other forms of work. At its most detailed level, it comprises 20 mutually exclusive categories. The detailed status at work categories may be aggregated, based on the type of authority exercised by the worker, to form eight broad groups, which may be further aggregated to form a dichotomy between independent workers and dependent workers.

ICSE-93: Status in Employment

NOTE: This classification presents the former statistical standard, but it is still the most widely used by national statistical systems in the production of labour statistics.

  1. Employees
  2. Employers
  3. Own-account workers
  4. Members of producers’ cooperatives
  5. Contributing family workers
  6. Workers not classifiable by status

ICSE-18-A: Status in Employment according to type of authority​

This classification provides a dichotomy between independent workers (groups A and B) and dependent workers (groups C-E).

Classification

Independent workers

A. Employers

11 – Employers in corporations

12 – Employers in household market enterprises

B. Independent workers without employees

21 – Owner-operators of corporations without employees

22 – Own-account workers in household market enterprises without employees

Dependent workers

C. Dependent contractors

30 – Dependent contractors

D. Employees

41 – Permanent employees

42 – Fixed-term employees

43 – Short-term and casual employees

44 – Paid apprentices, trainees and interns

E. Contributing family workers

51 – Contributing family workers

Uses

ICSE-18-A is suitable for various types of labour market analysis, including analysis of the impact of economic cycles on the labour market, and of government policies related to employment creation and regulation. It is also the most suitable hierarchy for use as an input variable in the compilation of statistics classified by socio-economic status.

ICSE-18-R: Status in Employment according to type of economic risk ​

This classification provides a dichotomy between employment for pay (groups G and D) and employment for profit (groups F, C and E). This latter dichotomy is analogous to the traditional distinction between paid employment and self-employment, used for example in the System of National Accounts.

Classification

Workers in employment for profit

F. Independent workers in household market enterprises

12 – Employers in household market enterprises

22 – Own-account workers in household market enterprises without employees

C. Dependent contractors:

30 – Dependent contractors

E. Contributing family workers

51 – Contributing family workers

Workers in employment for pay

G. Owner-operators of corporations

11 – Employers in corporations

21 – Owner-operators of corporations without employees

D. Employees

41 – Permanent employees

42 – Fixed-term employees

43 – Short-term and casual employees

44 – Paid apprentices, trainees and interns

Uses

ICSE-18-R is suitable for the provision of data for national accounts, for the identification of wage employment and its distribution, for the analysis from the perspective of economic risk of the impact of economic cycles and government on the labour market, and for the production and analysis of statistics on wages, earnings and labour costs.

ICSaW-18: International Classification of Status at Work​

The detailed status at work categories may be aggregated, based on the type of authority exercised by the worker, to form eight broad groups which may be further aggregated to form a dichotomy between independent workers and dependent workers.

Each of the detailed status at work groups in ICSaW-18 relates to only one form of work. The groups that relate to employment have the same definitions as in ICSE-18. The aggregate groups that include both employment and other forms of work, have a broader scope in ICSaW-18 than in ICSE-18-A and in some cases are assigned a different name.

Classification

Independent workers

1. Employers

11 – Employers in corporations

12 – Employers in household market enterprises

13 – Employers in own-use provision of services

14 – Employers in own-use production of goods

2. Independent workers without employees

21 – Owner-operators of corporations without employees

22 – Own-account workers in household market enterprises without employees

23 – Independent workers in own-use provision of services without employees

24 – Independent workers in own-use production of goods without employees

25 – Direct volunteers

Dependent workers

3. Dependent contractors

30 – Dependent contractors

4. Employees

41 – Permanent employees

42 – Fixed-term employees

43 – Short-term and casual employees

44 – Paid apprentices, trainees and interns

5. Family helpers

51 – Contributing family workers

52 – Family helpers in own-use provision of services

53 – Family helpers in own-use production of goods

6. Unpaid trainee workers

60 – Unpaid trainee workers

7. Organization-based volunteers

70 – Organization-based volunteers

9. Other unpaid workers

90 – Other unpaid workers

Aggregates based on form of work

Subsets of the detailed categories in ICSaW-18 may be used to present statistics on work relationships in own-use production work, employment, volunteer work, child labour and time-use on a conceptually consistent basis, regardless of the scope and source of the statistics. The categories for own-use production work and volunteer work may be aggregated according to the form of work as follows:

Workers in own-use production

(i) Workers in own-use provision of services

13 – Employers in own-use provision of services

23 – Independent workers in own-use provision of services without employees

52 – Family helpers in own-use provision of services

(ii) Workers in own-use production of goods

14 – Employers in own-use production of goods

24 – Independent workers in own-use production of goods without employees

53 – Family helpers in own-use production of goods

Volunteer workers

25 – Direct volunteers

70 – Organization-based volunteers

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