Indicator 8.3.1 Proportion of informal employment in total employment, by sector and sex

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all 

Target 8.3: Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services 

Indicator 8.3.1: Proportion of informal employment in total employment, by sector and sex

November, 2021

1.1.1, 1.3.1, 8.5.2

Uganda Bureau of Statistics

Sharon Apio

Labour Statistics Unit

Senior Statistician

+256 782 770851

P.O. Box 7186, Kampala

sharon.apio@ubos.org

Definition

This indicator presents the share of employment which is classified as informal employment out of total employment, and separately including agriculture and in non-agriculture.

Output measures used in the numerator of this indicator (Gross Domestic Product) is obtained from the production side of national accounts and represent the GDP at market prices for the aggregate economy (adjusted for inflation, in constant prices). 

Employment comprises all persons of working age who, during a short reference period (one week), were engaged in any activity to produce goods or provide services for pay or profit.

Informal employment comprises persons who in their main or secondary jobs were in one of the following categories:

• Own-account workers, employers and members of producers’ cooperatives employed in their own informal sector enterprises (the characteristics of the enterprise determine the informal nature of their jobs);
• Own-account workers engaged in the production of goods exclusively for own final use by their household (e.g. subsistence farming);
• Contributing family workers, regardless of whether they work in formal or informal sector enterprises (they usually do not have explicit, written contracts of employment, and are not subject to labour legislation, social security regulations, collective agreements, etc., which determines the informal nature of their jobs);
• Employees holding informal jobs, whether employed by formal sector enterprises, informal sector enterprises, or as paid domestic workers by households (employees are considered to have informal jobs if their employment relationship is, in law or in practice, not subject to national labour legislation, income taxation, social protection or entitlement to certain employment benefits).

For the purpose of classifying persons into formal or informal employment for this indicator, only the characteristics of the main job are considered.

An enterprise belongs to the informal sector if it fulfils the three following conditions:

• It is an unincorporated enterprise (it is not constituted as a legal entity separate from its owners, and it is owned and controlled by one or more members of one or more households, and it is not a quasi-corporation: it does not have a complete set of accounts, including balance sheets);
• It is a market enterprise (it sells at least some of the goods or services it produces);
• The enterprise is not registered or the employees of the enterprise are not registered or the number of persons engaged on a continuous basis is below a threshold determined by the country.

Percentage

The breakdown by sector is based on the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC)-Rev 4.

The Uganda National Household Surveys(UNHS)

Data collection includes; survey planning, consultative user needs assessment meetings, survey and sampling design, questionnaire development, pretesting and finalization of questionnaires, recruitment and training of field staff, field data collection and capture, data processing, management, checking and analysis, report writing and production. At each stage, the survey conformed to international best practices in survey implementation.

Sample Design

The sample was designed to allow generation of separate estimates at the national level, for urban and rural areas and for fifteen sub-regions of Uganda. A two-stage stratified sampling design is used. At the first stage, EAs are grouped by districts of similar socio-economic characteristics and by rural-urban location. The EAs were then drawn using Probability Proportional to size.

At the second stage, households which are the ultimate sampling units are drawn using Systematic Random Sampling. The total numbers of the EAs are selected from the National Population and Housing Census (NPHC) which constituted the sampling frame.

Training and data collection

A team of field supervisors and interviewers are recruited and trained for the main survey. The main approach of the training comprised instructions in relation to interviewing techniques and field procedures, a detailed review of the data collection modules, tests and practice using hand-held Computer Assisted Interviews (CAPI) devices. The training also includes interviews and field practice in selected EAs outside of the main survey sample. Team supervisors are further trained in data quality control procedures and coordination of field activities. METADATA HANDBOOK FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS 2021 211 Prior to the main fieldwork, the data collection module are pretested to ensure that the questions are clear, flowing and easily understood by respondents.

UNHS; Every after 3 years

2023/24

Uganda Bureau of Statistics

UBOS

The UBOS Act 1998 provides for the development and maintenance of the National Statistical System (NSS) to ensure collection, analysis and publication of integrated, relevant, reliable and timely statistical information.

In cases where social protection coverage is limited, social security benefits (such as unemployment insurance) are insufficient or even inexistent, and/or where wages and pensions are low, individuals may have to take up informal employment to ensure their livelihood. In these situations, indicators such as the unemployment rate would provide a very incomplete picture of the labour market situation, overlooking major deficits in the quality of employment. Statistics on informality are key to assessing the quality of employment in an economy, and are relevant to developing and developed countries.

The considerable heterogeneity of definitions and operational criteria used by countries to measure informal employment greatly hinders the international comparability of statistics on informality.

Trend and independent analysis Hold data validation meetings with stakeholders prior to dissemination

Resolution concerning statistics of employment in the informal sector, adopted by the Fifteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (January 1993).

Guidelines concerning a statistical definition of informal employment, adopted by the Seventieth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (November-December 2003).

ILO manual Measuring informality: A statistical manual on the informal sector and informal employment.

Quality Management is addressed through a series of activities by the UBOS Top management;

1. The survey implementation is overseen by a Technical Working Group which is constituted using a multi-sectorial approach.
2. The survey report is reviewed by an experienced team at Management level who are in most cases Directors or Heads of departments.

The 2019/20 UNHS underwent several stages before production and sharing of the final findings. During the Survey implementation.

1. Consultative user needs assessment meetings are held with all key stakeholders.
2. The survey and sampling design generated using scientific methods as recommended by the Census and Survey Rules and Regulations.
3. The questionnaire development follows a multi-stakeholder approach and pretesting helps to establish the relevancy and adequacy of the questions to be used.
4. Senior Supervision is conducted during data collection to ensure that quality data is collected

Data editing, cleaning and coding is undertaken before analysis and report writing

Before dissemination, the report is reviewed and quality assured by the Department of Outreach and Quality Assurance at the Bureau.

Data availability: Data for this indicator is available.

Time series: UNHS every 3 to 4 years

Disaggregation:

Data disaggregated by sector and sex.

Here, sector refers to the breakdown by agriculture/non-agriculture. Where possible, the disaggregation by sector could go into a more detailed breakdown by economic activity, but for the purpose of global and regional monitoring, the aggregate categories of agriculture and non-agriculture are provided. 6. COMPARABILITY/DEVIATION FROM INTERNATIONAL STANDARD

The data is comparable internationally

• Uganda National Household Survey reports (2012/13, 2016/17 and 2019/20).
• Resolution concerning statistics of employment in the informal sector, adopted by the Fifteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (January 1993).
• Guidelines concerning a statistical definition of informal employment, adopted by the Seventieth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (November-December 2003).
• ILO manual Measuring informality: A statistical manual on the informal sector and informal employment.
• Resolution concerning statistics of work, employment and labour underutilization adopted by the Nineteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (October 2013)
• International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC Rev.4) https://unstats.un.org/unsd/ cr/registry/isic-4.asp