Transcript Measurement of Informal Sector and Employment: Cas study

Measurement of Informal Sector and
Employment: Case study of Palestine
Saleh Alkafri
Discussant Derek Blades
ILO definitions
• Informal enterprises (unincorporated,
unregistered, do not pay taxes)
• Informal employment ( working in informal
enterprises, own account workers for own
final use only)
• Informal jobs (no written contract, no social
security)
ILO Indicators
• % informal enterprises
• % informal employment
• % informal GDP
• % of informal/unprotected employment
• Kinds of activity of informal enterprises
• Occupations of informal employees
Data problems
• Problems common to most countries
– No dedicated surveys of informal sector
– Amount of detail from surveys decreases as
enterprises get smaller
• Conflict
– Gaza excluded from population census
– Gaza destruction
– Disruption of economic life in the West Bank by
occupation
1 – 2 Survey
• First survey is Labour Force Survey
• Identifies persons/households employed in informal jobs
• Second survey focuses on these persons/households
• Sampling and weighting issues
• LFS first modified to 1-2 format in Q4 2008
• Some preliminary results
Some results
• 37% of all enterprises are informal
• 45% of all private sector enterprises are informal
• Informal sector employed 22% of total employment
• Informal value added represents 8% of GDP
• 54% of employees are unprotected
Some results: employment
Informal
employment
Formal
employment
Total
Informal
sector
141 200
(41%)
Zero
(0%)
141 200
(22%)
Formal sector
205 500
(59%)
295 300
(100%)
500 800
(78%)
Total
346 700
(100%)
295 300
(100%)
642 000
(100%)
Why measure informal?
ILO Approach
• Standard definitions for
enterprises, employment,
jobs
• Standard indicators of size
of informal sector, informal
employment
• International comparability
Broader approach
• Improve labour statistics
• Exhaustive national
accounts
• Looser definitions adapted
to each country
• No measure of “informal
sector” as such.
• Information for policy
purposes.
Information for policy
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Survival strategy or business opportunity
Kinds of activity
Main or secondary source of income
Labour productivity
Age, gender, education of informal workers
Access to bank credit
Barriers to growth
Taxes are a delicate matter
• Can we ask – “Do you pay taxes?”
• Can we ask – “Does your employer pay taxes?”
• Should we ask these questions?
• Reliability of answers?
• Danger of linking statistical office with the tax
authorities
Four questions
• What is meant by “projects”?
• What are “inside” and “outside”
enterprises?
• What lessons for the next 1-2 survey
• What is informal employment in the
formal sector?
Some results: employment
Informal
employment
Formal
employment
Total
Informal
sector
141 200
(41%)
Zero
(0%)
141 200
(22%)
Formal sector
205 500
(59%)
295 300
(100%)
500 800
(78%)
Total
346 700
(100%)
295 300
(100%)
642 000
(100%)