Revealing the unseen: The 21 ^st ICLS statistical standards on the informal economy

Informality is widespread globally, with many workers and enterprises lacking formal arrangements. Effective statistics on the informal economy are essential for policy development, improving working conditions, and promoting decent work. Over the past 30 years, the establishment of statistical standards on informality has helped countries better measure and understand the informal sector and informal employment. Recent revisions to these standards, driven by evolving statistical labour standards and growing national experience, have led to a new resolution on informal economy statistics. Adopted at the 21st ICLS in 2023, this resolution offers a comprehensive framework for defining and measuring informality. It introduces concepts such as informal productive activities, the informal economy, the informal market economy, and informal work, setting the structure and boundaries for informality statistics. By integrating the 19th ICLS resolution on work, employment, and labour underutilization and the 20th ICLS resolution on work relationships, including ICSE-18, the new standards align with previous resolutions, promoting coherence in labour statistics. The resolution includes improved definitions of the formal and informal sectors, household own-use production and community sector, and formal and informal employment, enhancing data quality and harmonization across countries. Overall, the 21st ICLS resolution significantly enhance countries’ capacity to produce harmonized, policy-relevant statistics on the informal economy, aiding efforts to formalize it.