Population Employed in the Informal Sector

The population employed in the informal sector comprises all persons who, during a given reference period, were employed in at least one informal sector, irrespective of their status in employment and whether it is their main or a secondary job.

Where possible, the population employed in the informal sector should be subclassified into two categories:

• persons exclusively employed in the informal sector, and
• persons employed both in and outside the informal sector.

The latter category may be further divided into two subcategories:

• persons whose main job is in the informal sector, and
• persons whose secondary job is in the informal sector.

If the total employed population is to be classified into mutually exclusive categories of persons employed in and outside the informal sector, persons employed both in and outside the informal sector should be classified as a separate category, or criteria should be established to determine their main job (e.g. on the basis of self-assessment, time spent at work or amount of remuneration received in each job).

In some countries, a significant number of children below the age specified for measurement of the economically active population in population censuses or household surveys work in informal sector units and may represent a group of particular concern for labour legislation and educational and social policies. In such situations, every possible effort should be made in informal sector surveys to collect information on the work of all children irrespective of age, and children below the minimum age specified in population censuses or household surveys should be identified separately.

Resolution concerning statistics of employment in the informal sector, the 15th ICLS