1 / 12

Measurement of Informal Sector and Employment: Case study of Palestine Saleh Alkafri

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)

ford
Download Presentation

Measurement of Informal Sector and Employment: Case study of Palestine Saleh Alkafri

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Measurement of Informal Sector and Employment: Case study of PalestineSalehAlkafri Discussant Derek Blades

  2. 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)

  3. ILO Indicators • % informal enterprises • % informal employment • % informal GDP • % of informal/unprotected employment • Kinds of activity of informal enterprises • Occupations of informal employees

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. Some results: employment

  8. Why measure informal? ILO Approach 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. • Standard definitions for enterprises, employment, jobs • Standard indicators of size of informal sector, informal employment • International comparability

  9. Information for policy • 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

  10. 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

  11. 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?

  12. Some results: employment

More Related