ILO Department of Statistics
Elisa M. Benes
Household Surveys Unit
ILO Department of Statistics
Email: benes@ilo.org
Workshop on Challenges and Strategies in
Improving Labour Statistics in Africa
Bamako, Mali (22-24 November 2010)

• Labour force surveys relevance & topic coverage
• Decent work indicators measurable through household surveys
• Informal employment
• Labour underutilization
• Periodicity of data & labour force survey arrangements
• Current ILO activities
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PEOPLE
• Age/Sex
• Marital status
• Education
HOUSEHOLDS
•Size/Composition
• Income/benefits
• Location
Current activity status (in the reference week) of working age population
EMPLOYED (all jobs)
• Branch of economic activity
• Occupation
• Institutional sector
• Status in employment
• Contract characteristics
• Informal employment
• Informal sector employment
• Working time (usual & actual hours)
• Time-related underemployment & other inadequate employment
• Income from employment
• Employment-related benefits
• Social dialogue
ILO Department of Statistics
UNEMPLOYED
• Search methods
• Duration
• Qualifications
• Previous work exp.
• Characteristics of last job
• Receipt benefits
NOT IN LF
• Reasons
• Desire to work
• Availability
• Job search
• Qualifications
• Previous work exp.
• Characteristics of last job
• Receipt benefits
Best source of information about the
Economically Active Population
-One single source for Working Age Population (WAP)
-All types of workers, jobs, branches of economic activity
-Flexible, detailed probing permits precise measurement 3

Decent work indicators measurable through household surveys
• More than half of the Decent Work indicators have as main source a household survey (Labour Force Surveys, Labour
Force module, or child labour survey)
– Main indicators: 12 out of 18 indicators
– Additional & future indicators: 16 out of 29 indicators
• Household surveys are also an important source of contextual indicators
– 5 out of 11 indicators
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Decent work indicators measurable through Labour Force Surveys
Main indicators
• Employment-to-population ratio
• Unemployment rate
• Youth not in education & not in employment
• Informal employment
• Low pay rate
• Excessive hours
• Child labour*
• % employed in precarious work
• Occupational segregation by sex
• Female share of employment in ISCO groups 11 & 12
• % pop. 65+ benefiting from a pension
• Union density rate
ILO Department of Statistics
Additional/future indicators
• Labour force participation rate
• Youth unemployment rate
• Unemployment by level of education
• Employment by status in employment
• % Own account workers & contributing family workers in total employment
• % wage employment in non-agricultural employment
• Labour underutilization
• Employees with recent job training
• Usual hours worked (hour bands)
• Rate of time-related underemployment
• Number/wages of casual/daily workers
• Gender wage gap
• Share of population covered by (basic) health care provision
• Share of EAP contributing to a pension scheme
5

Decent work indicators measurable through Labour Force Surveys
Main indicators
• Employment-to-population ratio
• Unemployment rate
Additional/future indicators
• Labour force participation rate
• Youth unemployment rate
• Unemployment by level of education
• Youth not in educ. & not in employment
• Informal employment
• Low pay rate
• Excessive hours
• Child labour*
• % employed in precarious work
• Occupational segregation by sex
• Female share of employment in ISCO groups 11 & 12
• Employment by status in employment
• % Own account workers & contributing family workers in total employment
• % wage employment in non-agricultural employment
• Labour underutilization
• Employees with recent job training
• Usual hours worked (hour bands)
• Rate of time-related underemployment
• % pop. 65+ benefiting from a pension
• Union density rate
Most indicators are already a core part of LFS
ILO Department of Statistics
• Number/wages of casual/daily workers
• Gender wage gap
• Share of population covered by (basic) health care provision
• Share of EAP contributing to a pension scheme
6

Decent work indicators measurable through Labour Force Surveys
Measurement based on
• Standards adopted by the International Conference of Labour
Statisticians (ICLS)
• Countries’ best practices in measurement through labour force surveys
Few in developmental stage
• Measurement of income from employment through household surveys
• Indicator(s) of labour underutilization
• Measurement of indicators on stability and security at work, …
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Employment
Stability & security
Informal employment
Voice & representation
Informal sector employment
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Excessive hrs.
Time –Related
Underemployment
Low pay
GPG
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ILO Department of Statistics unemployment
Labour market attachment
10

ILO Department of Statistics
Characteristics of unemployed & labour market attachment
11

Informal employment as % of total employment
ILO Department of Statistics

• Adopted by 17 th International Conference of Labour
Statisticians (2003)
• To complement informal sector employment as a related but different concept
– Informal sector employment: enterprise-based concept
– Informal employment: job-based concept
• Refer to different aspects of the informalization of employment
• Important to measure in a coherent & consistent manner with informal sector employment
13

Definition of informal employment
17 th ICLS (2003)
Informal employment refers to
Total number of informal jobs, whether carried out in formal sector enterprises, informal sector enterprises, or households (paid domestic workers, production for own-consumption), during a given reference period
Key elements
– Job-based concept (focus on characteristics of the job)
– Includes all jobs (main & secondary jobs)
– Includes jobs in all types of production units
– Includes workers in all status in employment
– Includes all branches of economic activity (agriculture & non-agricult)
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Relation between informal sector employment & informal employment
Production units
Informal sector enterprises
Other units of production
(formal sector enterprises & households)
Informal jobs Formal jobs
A B
C D
Informal employment
Informal sector employment
Informal employment outside of the informal sector
Employment in the informal economy
A + C
A + B
C
A + B + C
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Relation between informal sector employment & informal employment
Informal jobs outside of
IS enterprises
ILO Department of Statistics
Informal employment
Informal sector employment
Formal jobs in
IS enterprises
TOTAL EMPLOYMENT
16

• Criteria to determine the formal / informal nature of jobs depends on status in employment
Employees
– Have informal jobs if their employment relationship is, in law or in practice, not subject to national labour legislation, income taxation, social protection or entitlement to certain employment benefits (advance notice of dismissal, severance pay, paid annual or sick leave, etc.)
Note: Definition covers (i) de jure informal jobs and (ii) de facto informal jobs.
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Measurement of informal jobs of employees in LFS
Operational criteria to identify employees in informal jobs:
• Lack of contributions to social security system by employer
• Lack of entitlement to paid annual leave
• Lack of entitlement to paid sick leave
Note, it is not sufficient to use:
• Lack of written employment contract
• Casual/temporary nature of work
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Self-employed
• Employers, own-account workers & members of producers’ coop.
– Formal/informal nature of job depends on characteristics of enterprise
– Have informal jobs if their enterprises are part of the informal sector
• Contributing family members
– Employment usually not subject to labour legislation, no contractual relationship
– All have informal jobs regardless of whether the enterprise is formal or informal
• Engaged in production for own final use by household
– Employment not subject to labour legislation
– All have informal jobs
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Measurement of informal jobs of self-employed in LFS
Informal employment of self employed
• Employers’, own account workers, members of producers cooperatives
– Requires identification of the enterprise or cooperative as belonging to the informal sector
• Contributing family members
– Question on status in employment
• Engaged in production for own final use by their household
– Question on branch of economic activity (industry)
– ISIC, Rev. 3/3.1/4 permits identification (9810)
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30
20
10
0
60
50
40
90
80
70
Figure 1.
Informal Employment and Employment in the Informal Sector in Ten
Selected Countries, latest year available a/
(Percent of total non-agricultural employment) b/
Informal employment Employment in the informal sector
Source: ILO. In Brazil, estimates based on official data from various sources. In Colombia, Ecuador, Mali, Mexico, Panama, Peru and South Africa: ILO estimates computed from labour force survey micro data. In Moldova and Turkey, labour force survey data. a/ In Brazil, 2003 data. In Mali, South Africa, Moldova and Turkey, 2004 data. In Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Peru, 2007 data. b/ In Brazil, Mali, Moldova, South Africa and Turkey, estimates are provided as a percent of total non-agricultural employment. In all other countries, data are provided as a percent of total employment in urban areas.
International Labour Office
Department of Statistics

ILO Department of Statistics

• Intended uses
– To supplement the unemployment rate and be reported along with it
– Broad measure of the employment problem that:
• better reflects people’s perception of “unemployment”
• i.e. captures key economic AND social dimensions of
“unemployment”
• Proposed scope
– Key mismatches between labour supply and demand
– Undervalued labour
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• Key characteristics
– Fully consistent with labour force framework
– Builds on existing related concepts
– Readily measurable with data from labour force surveys
– Single composite indicator
– Can be broken down into its components for deeper analysis and policy-making
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Envisioned use of the indicator
(
18 th ICLS, room document 13, page 28
)
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From…
Employed Unemployed
Economically active population
(Labour force)
Not economically active
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To…
Employed Unemployed Not economically active
Labour underutilization
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Components of labour underutilization a. Labour slack Insufficient volume of work b. Skills underutilization
Inadequate match between education and occupation c. Low earnings Low remuneration of work
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Components of labour underutilization (1) a. Labour slack Insufficient volume of work
• Unemployed
• Time-related underemployed
Labour slack among economically active persons
• Discouraged jobseekers
Labour slack among
• Other inactive persons marginally inactive persons attached to the LF
Requires development of a classification of persons not in the labour force (based on desire to work, availability & job search)
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Components of labour underutilization (2) b. Skills underutilization
Inadequate match between education and occupation
• Persons employed in jobs with skills requirements below educational attainment
Measurement based on level of educational attainment
(ISCED 1997) and 1 digit occupational classification
(ISCO-08) applied to main job only
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Components of labour underutilization (3) c. Low earnings Low remuneration of work
• Full-time employed with low monthly earnings
• Less than full-time employed with low hourly earnings
• Overly employed with low earnings
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Labour underutilization within labour force framework
Working age population
Economically active Not economically active
Employed
Other employed
Unemployed
Time-related underemployed
Employed,
Skills underutilized
Employed, low pay
ILO Department of Statistics
Discouraged
Other inactive, available
Other inactive, not available
32

Labour underutilization (LU):
Calculation approach
• As a single composite measure
LU= labour slack + low earnings + skills underutilization
• Rate of labour underutilization
Rate of LU=(LU / working age population or extended labour force )*100
• Components treated as mutually exclusive (priority criteria):
– 1 st step: Labour slack
– 2 nd step: Low earnings
– 3 rd step: Skills underutilization
• Components can also be calculated as overlapping and reported separately
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Examples: Unemployment rate & labour underutilization rate
Country
Tanzania, Rep. of (2005/06)
Mexico (2007 Q2)
Moldova, Rep. of (2007)
Philippines (2003 Q4)
Panama (2007 Aug)
Turkey (2007)
Bosnia & Herzegovina (2006)
Unemployment rate (%)
3.3
3.4
5.0
5.4
5.7
9.3
27.0
Labour underutilization rate (%)
51.9
30.2
46.3
40.8
45.1
29.9
56.0
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ILO Department of Statistics

National programme for LF statistics:
13 TH ICLS Resolution I, para. 2.
Long-term needs
(for structural in depth-analysis and as benchmark data)
– Comprehensive data on the economically active population
– In-depth statistics on relation between employment, income & other social and economic characteristics
– Data on particular topics (children, youth, women)
– At minimum every 10 years
Short-term needs
(for current purposes, compiled frequently & recurrent basis)
– To encompass statistics of the economically active population and its components for monitoring of trends and seasonal variations
– At minimum once a year (& twice to account for seasonal variations)
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Labour force survey programme for current
& long-term data needs
For long-term labour force statistics programme
– Occasional survey (e.g. one-off multipurpose survey)
– Regular survey (e.g. inter-censal stand-alone or multipurpose survey)
For current labour force statistics programme
– Annual survey with periodic data collection for annual pointestimates
Depending on resources & capacity
– Continuous survey system with sample rotation for monthly/ quarterly/ annual average estimates
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Some strategies to improve
Labour force statistics programme
• Objective: To build a regular labour force survey programme to provide for current & long-term data needs
• Strategy: Progressive development & implementation
1 One-off multipurpose survey with labour force module
2
Annual urban labour force survey or short labour force module in multipurpose survey & 5-yearly (inter-censal) national LFS
3 Annual LFS with periodic data collection in high & low seasons
4
Annual LFS with continuous data collection for monthly/quarterly/annual estimates
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• Periodic data collection
– once a year, two, four or twelve times a year
– point in time estimates
• Continuous data collection
– every week or fortnight
– annual, quarterly, monthly averages

Annual labour force surveys with continuous data collection
Advantages:
– Seasonal variations over time are captured and period effects eliminated
– Estimates reflect the average situation during a month, quarter or year
– Flexibility in periodicity of data dissemination (depending on sample design)
– No longer need to use concepts based on long reference periods (e.g. usual activity, annual income), which are prone to recall errors
– Improved timeliness in dissemination due to continuous data entry & processing
– Smaller dedicated field interviewers teams = better quality & lower staff turnover

Activities of the ILO:
Work in progress
• Labour force surveys & decent work indicators
– Model labour force surveys materials based on standards & best practices
• Building-block approach
• Model labour force survey section & question sequences flow charts
• Question elements (text, response options, skips, instructions)
• Topic-specific flow charts
• Explanatory notes
• Definition sheets for derived variables
• Indicator requirement sheets
– Developmental work to pilot test question sequences
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Activities of the ILO:
Work in progress
• Manual on Surveys of Informal Employment & Informal Sector
– 11 th Meeting of the Delhi Group (Geneva, January 2010)
– Main draft available at (under 11 th Meeting): http://mospi.nic.in/Mospi_New/site/DelhiGroup.aspx
– Publication: forthcoming in 2011

Activities of the ILO:
Work in progress
• Labour underutilization
– 2008: 18 th ICLS Resolution concerning the development of measures of labour underutilization
– 2009: Technical Workshop on measures of labour underutilization
– 2010: Working Group for the Advancement of Employment &
Unemployment Statistics
• Objective: To propose draft recommendations for possible adoption by the 19 th ICLS in 2013
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Working Group for the Advancement of
Employment & Unemployment Statistics
Current membership
Africa
Mali
Mauritius
Morocco
South Africa
Tunisia
Uganda
Zimbabwe
Americas
Brazil
Colombia
Mexico
Peru
USA
Asia & Pacific Europe
India
Japan
Kazakhstan
New Zealand
Philippines
Sri Lanka
Thailand
West Bank &
Gaza Strip
Denmark
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Moldova
Norway
Spain
Switzerland
Turkey
+5 representatives from Afristat, Eurostat, OECD
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ILO Department of Statistics