7.8.                  The relevant standards on the labour force are developed and maintained by the International Labour Organization (ILO)[1]. The ILO standards are contained in the resolutions, adopted by the International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) at its sessions. 

Box VII.1 

The ILO definition of   work 

The Resolution concerning   statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization (para. I), adopted   by the Nineteenth Conference of Labour Statisticians, defines the statistical   concept of work for reference purposes and provides operational   concepts, definitions and guidelines for: 

(a)              Distinct subsets of work activities, referred to as forms of work; 

(b)              Related classifications of the population according to their labour‑force   status and main  form of work; 

(c)              Measures of labour   underutilization.

__________________________

Source: International Labour Organization   (2013b).

7.9.                  According to the ILO resolution concerning statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization: Work comprises any activity performed by persons of any sex and age to produce goods or to provide services for use by others or for own use.

(i)             Work is defined irrespective of its formal or informal character or the legality of the activity. 

(ii)            Work excludes activities that do not involve producing goods or services (e.g., begging and stealing), self‑care (e.g., personal grooming and hygiene) and activities that cannot be performed by another person on one’s own behalf (e.g., sleeping, learning and activities for own recreation). 

7.10.                  The concept of work is aligned with the general production boundary as defined in the System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA) and its concept of economic unit which distinguishes between: 

(a)            Market units (i.e., corporations, quasi‑corporations and household unincorporated market enterprises); 

(b)            Non‑market units (i.e., government and non‑profit institutions serving households); 

(c)            Households that produce goods or services for own final use. Work can be performed in any kind of economic unit.

Box VII.2 

Work and the 2008 SNA

To meet different objectives, five mutually exclusive forms of work   are identified for separate measurement. These forms of work are   distinguished on the basis of the intended destination of the production (for   own final use; or for use by others, i.e., other economic units) and the   nature of the transaction (i.e., monetary or non‑monetary transactions, and   transfers), as follows: 

(a)              Own‑use production work comprising production of goods and services for   own final use; 

(b)              Employment work comprising work performed for others in exchange for pay or profit; 

(c)              Unpaid trainee work   comprising work performed for others without pay to acquire workplace   experience or skills; 

(d)              Volunteer work comprising non‑compulsory work performed for others without pay; 

(e)              Other work activities (not defined in this   resolution). 

These “other work activities” include such activities as unpaid   community service and work by prisoners ordered by a court or similar   authority, and unpaid military or alternative civilian service, which may be   treated as a distinct form of work for measurement (such as compulsory work   performed without pay for others). 

Different units are relevant for the production of statistics on each   form of work. For compiling and reporting, three basic units are persons, jobs or work activities,   and time units: 

(a)              Persons are the basic unit for producing statistics on the population engaged   in each form of work; 

(b)              A job or work   activity is defined as a set of tasks and duties performed, or meant to   be performed, by one person for a single economic unit: 

(i)                The term “job” is used in reference to employment. Persons may have   one or several jobs. Those in self‑employment will have as many jobs as the   economic units they own or co‑own, irrespective of the number of clients   served. In cases of multiple job‑holding, the main job is that with   the longest hours usually worked, as defined in the international statistical   standards on working time; 

(ii)              This statistical unit, when relating to own‑use production work,   unpaid trainee work, and volunteer work is referred to as work activity; 

(c)              Time units are used for producing statistics of volume of work in reference to   each form of work or to any combination thereof. These units may be short   such as minutes or hours, or long such as half‑days, days, weeks or months.

Persons may be classified   in a short reference period (seven days or one week) according to their labour‑force   status as being: 

(a)              In employment;

(b)              In unemployment; or

(c)              Outside the labour force; and among these, in the potential labour   force.

__________________________

Source: International Labour Organization   (2013b).

7.11.                  Persons may engage in one or more forms of work in parallel or consecutively, i.e., persons may be employed, be volunteering, doing unpaid trainee work and/or producing for own use, in any combination. 

7.12.                  Own‑use production of goods, employment, unpaid trainee work, a part of volunteer work and “other work activities” form the basis for the preparation of national production accounts within the 2008 SNA production boundary. Own‑use provision of services and the remaining part of volunteer work complete the national production accounts i.e., beyond the 2008 SNA production boundary but inside the general production boundary (see

7.13.                  Figure VII.1).

7.14.                  The form of work identified as employment sets the reference scope of activities for labour‑force statistics. The concept labour force refers to the current supply of labour for the production of goods and services in exchange for pay or profit.

Box VII.3 

Identifying persons outside the labour force                              

The sum of persons in employment and in unemployment equals the labour force. 

Persons outside the labour force are those of working age who were neither in employment nor in unemployment in the short reference period (seven days or one week).

__________________________

Source: Statistical Office of the European Union (2010), paras. 11.17-11.19.

7.15.                  Persons in employment are defined as all those of working age who, during a short reference period, were engaged in any activity to produce goods or provide services for pay or profit.[2] They comprise: 

(a)            Employed persons “at work”, i.e. who worked in a job for at least one hour;

(b)            Employed persons “not at work” due to temporary absence from a job, or to working‑time arrangements (such as shift work, flexitime and compensatory leave for overtime). See also section C.3 below. 

“For pay or profit” refers to work done as part of a transaction in exchange for remuneration payable in the form of wages or salaries for time worked or work done, or in the form of profits derived from the goods and services produced through market transactions, specified in the most recent international statistical standards concerning employment‑related income:38 

(a)            It includes remuneration in cash or in kind, whether actually received or not, and may also comprise additional components of cash or in‑kind income; 

(b)            The remuneration may be payable directly to the person performing the work or indirectly to a household or family member. 

7.16.                  Persons in unemployment are defined as all those of working age who were not in employment, carried out activities to seek employment during a specified recent period and were currently available to take up employment given a job opportunity, where: 

(a)            “Not in employment” is assessed with respect to the short reference period for the measurement of employment; 

(b)            To “seek employment” refers to any activity when carried out, during a specified recent period comprising the last four weeks or one month, for the purpose of finding a job or setting up a business or agricultural undertaking. This includes also part‑time, informal, temporary, seasonal or casual employment, within the national territory or abroad. 

7.17.              As explained in IRTS 2008 (paras. 7.8-7.11), persons may have two or more jobs during a given reference period, and all, some or none of these jobs may be undertaken in the tourism industries. The difference between the concepts of jobs and persons employed is also clarified in Box VII.4.

7.18.              The distinction between employed persons and jobs leads to three measures of employment in the tourism industries, i,e., a count of: 

  • Persons employed in tourism industries in any of their jobs
  • Persons employed in tourism industries in their main job
  • Jobs in tourism industries 

7.19.              An example of the practical application of the measures of “main job” and “other job(s)” is presented in Box VII.5). 

7.20.              Status in employment refers to the type of explicit or implicit contract of employment with other persons or organizations that the economically active person has in his or her job. The basic criteria used to define the groups of the classification are the type of economic risk, an element of which is the strength of the attachment between the person and the job, and the type of authority over establishments and other workers that the person has or will have in the job. IRTS 2008 suggests to use two categories of status in employment to classify employed persons with respect to a given job: paid employment or self‑employment. Further information is given in section D.1.3.


[1] In this regard, the Resolution concerning the International Classification of Status in Employment substitutes the Resolution concerning statistics of the economically active population, employment, unemployment and underemployment, adopted by the Thirteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (October 1982) and the amendment of its paragraph 5, adopted by the Eighteenth Conference (2008); the Resolution concerning the measurement of underemployment and inadequate employment situations adopted by the Sixteenth Conference (October 1998), as well as the Guidelines endorsed thereat concerning treatment in employment and unemployment statistics of persons on extended absences from work; and the Guidelines on the implications of employment promotion schemes on the measurement of employment and unemployment, endorsed by the Fourteenth Conference (1987).

[2] See International Labour Organization (1998), Resolution concerning the measurement of employment-related income, 16th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS), 6 – 15 October 1998, Geneva, (online), available at: http://www.ilo.org/global/statistics-and-databases/standards-and-guidelines/resolutions-adopted-by-international-conferences-of-labour-statisticians/WCMS_087490/lang--en/index.htm (30-05-2014).