Engendering the measurement of informality – statistical standards and methods

In October 2023 the 21 st International Conference of Labour Statisticians adopted a new set of statistical standards on the informal economy, incorporating new definitions on different concepts related to informality and identifying a wide indicator framework. The process to develop those standards placed a central focus on improving the range of gender relevant data on the topic, drawing strength from recently adopted standards from the 19 th and 20 th ICLS on different forms of work, labour underutilization and work relationships. Beginning in 2021 the ILO launched a project with a range of workstreams but with a key focus on ensuring that the new standards would be sufficiently engendered, and that measurement guidance would be generated to support their timely implementation. A major part of this work was the organisation of comprehensive pilot studies in Uganda and Peru, involving a mix of qualitative and quantitative testing methods and a dedicated test of the impact of proxy response. This paper describes the evolution of statistical standards since 2013, highlighting their incremental and interrelated nature, providing a new and transformed platform for labour statistics. The paper further describes the pilot studies completed in Uganda and Peru and key findings emerging on the measurement of informality and heavily related topics through the labour force survey.