Overview of the
International classification
of occupations (ISCO)
A case for Uganda
Ssennono vincent
Contents
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Sources of labour statistics
Why urban labour force surveys
Type of labour statistics
Achievements
Coding of occupations
Limitations
recommendatios
Sources of Labour Statistics
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Censuses and Sample Surveys
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Administrative Records
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Conducted by UBOS
Ministry of Gender, labour and Social
Development
Records from Other Organizations
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FUE, NOTU, UIA, UMA, NSSF, Dept of
Immigration, etc
Censuses
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1991 and 2002 Populations Censuses
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1990 , 2002 and 2010 Census of Business
Establishments
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Collected little information on the status of the
labour force
Collected information on employment
1978 Census of Civil Servants
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Collected detailed information but for Civil
Servants ONLY
Specific Sample Surveys
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Enumeration of Employees 1968
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HH Budget Survey 1988/89
National Manpower Survey of 1989
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Covered Characteristics and structure of skilled manpower
in the formal Sector
Integrated HH Surveys 1992/93
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Covered employees only in the formal Sector
A few questions on activity Status were asked
Monitoring Surveys 1993/94, 1994/95, 1995/96
Specific Sample Surveys
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HH Survey of 1997 with a Pilot Labour module
Demographic and Health Surveys 1988/89,
2000/2001, 2006
Uganda Household Survey 1999/2000,
2002/2003, 2005/06, 2009/10
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Labour Market condition, 2006
Labour Market condition, 2007
Labour Market condition, 2011(planned)
Specific Sample Surveys
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Employment and earning surveys, 2007
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hours of work per job
Average wage per job
Overtime payment
Number of vacancies
Occupational injuries
National panel surveys- 2005/06 and 2009/2010
Annual Urban labour force surveys-2009
Why urban annual labour
force survey
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Monitor unemployment rate in urban
areas
Limited resource
Quality of data- self reporting and
reducing respondent fatigue
Administrative Records
Registration of the unemployed
by MGLSD- poor coverage
 Records of individual employers
 Data from employer or
employee organizations e.g.
NOTU and FUE
 Job Adverts in newspaper
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Type Labour Statistics
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Status in Employment of persons
Unemployment Rate
Labour force participation rate
Industry and Occupation
Monthly earnings
Time realated Underemployment
Labour slack
Type of Labour Statistics
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Working poor
Labour absorption rate
Share of women in wage employment
Size of subsistence vs non subsistence
Wage rates in selected occupation
Size of public sector employment
Achievements
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Design a full fledged labour force
survey instruments
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questionnaire
Sampling
Manual of instruction
Carried out a an independent labour
force survey in urban areas
Improved funding from government
Targeted dissemination
Components of labour underutilization
Labour slack
25.5%
21.4%
30.4%
● Unemployed
13.0%
6.6%
20.7%
● Time-related underemployed
10.2%
13.9%
5.8%
● Discouraged workers
1.3%
0.3%
2.6%
● Other not economically active persons, currently available
for work
0.9%
0.5%
1.4%
10.5%
13.9%
6.6%
4.3%
6.1%
2.2%
- 5th level education in occupations ISCO-88 major
groups 4-9
6.1%
7.7%
4.2%
- 6th level education in occupations ISCO-88 major
groups 3-9
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
Low earnings
4.0%
2.8%
5.5%
● Full-time employed (40-48 hrs per week) with low monthly
earnings
0.3%
0.1%
0.5%
● Part-time employed (<40 hrs per week) with low hourly
earnings
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
● Over-employed (>48 hrs per week)
3.7%
2.7%
5.0%
- with low monthly earnings
3.7%
2.7%
5.0%
- above monthly earnings threshold, but with low hourly
earnings
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
Skills underutilization
- 2nd, 3rd and 4th level education in occupations ISCO-88
major group 9
Coding of occupation (ISCO1988) surveys
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Main and secondary occupations
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What was (names) main/secondary
occupation in the last 7 days. DESCRIBE THE
OCCUPATION AND IN AT LEAST 2 WORDS.
enumerator coding up to 3 digits
Localization some occupations
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Importance of the occupations e.g Boda boda
Professional jobs
Both description and code are entered for
post editing
Coding of occupation- ctd
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Employment and earning surveys
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Occupational hierarchy
identified common occupations by branch of
economic activity e.g for health institutionsurgeons, nurses, midwifery, dentists, lab
technologists etc
similarly for manufacturing, education etc
Occupation coding in censuses
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Office coding
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coding instruction
coders
Supervisor
limitation
Localization of some occupations
 Cost of office coding especially
in census
 Different languages
 unclear and tricky responses
 little technical support by ILO
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Recommendations
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Countries should come together to harmonise
concepts and definitions for international
comparability
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Like OECD countries, Africa should form a
body to spear head labour issues in the ICLS
and to help other African countries to improve.
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Improve the Metadata of labour statistics
THE WAY TO GO – The Way Of The
Ants:
Simple Agents, Simple Tasks, Simple Rules
“Lower level rules develop high level sophistication”
THEIR THEORY?
Better
More Is
“Minimum threshold levels are red to make intelligent
assessments of the global state. ”
THEIR CONTROLS?
Indirect – Specialization and
Coordination
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Thank you