gender gap in the intended use of output is not primarily an artifact of the way the data were collected (i.e. via self-reports) but rather, a reflection of the differences in male and female farmers’ labor allocation across crop and, particularly, livestock products, which differ in their intended use of output. Third, in all three countries included in this study, farmers are less likely to report producing only or mainly for sale at the beginning of the agricultural season than at the end. In Malawi, the differences in the intended destination of output between the beginning and the end of the season are mostly driven by farmers’ reallocation of labor across agricultural products, particularly between subsistence crops and livestock, where the latter is more commercialized. However, changes in the self-reported intended use of output also play a role, as farmers are more likely to report a given crop as being intended for sale at the end of the agricultural season than at the beginning. Though caution is warranted when generalizing to other countries, this suggests that, under the revised standards, rural employment ratios in Sub-Saharan Africa may be higher at the end than at the beginning of the agricultural season, at least in countries with agricultural production systems that are similar to the ones reported on in this paper.<sup>5</sup> This heightened sensitivity of agricultural employment to the timing of data collection also poses challenges to comparisons of rural labor market indicators, especially when the underlying surveys are fielded at different points during the agricultural calendar.

The revised standards have significant implications for measures of rural employment in Sub-Saharan Africa, in terms of its prevalence and sectoral distribution, and these can be illustrated for the two countries, Malawi and Nigeria, for which we have nationally representative data. Measured male and female rural employment-to-population ratios drop by 18 percentage points for males and 12 percentage points for females in Nigeria, and by 12 and 19 percentage points, respectively, in Malawi (corresponding to relative declines of approximately 20 to 30 percent in both countries). In Malawi, the decline in rural employment is larger for females than for males, while it is the opposite pattern in Nigeria. The magnitude of the decline in rural employment-to-population ratios not only reflects the share of farmers re-classified under the revised standards but also the prevalence of farming in the total population and the extent to which those farmers are also engaged in non-farm household enterprises and/or wage work. In other words, many farmers who produce only or mainly for family consumption remain employed under the revised standards because they are engaged in these other, mostly non-agricultural, activities (for at least one hour during the

> 5 It is important to note that while rural employment in developing countries has always displayed some seasonal variation, this will most likely be amplified under the 19<sup>th</sup> ICLS standards. Under both the previous (1982) and the revised (2013) labor statistics standards employment is measured in relation to a short reference period (e.g. the past seven days). Hence, even the under previous standards, rural employment ratios (in Sub-Saharan Africa) often fluctuated over the course of the agricultural season, due to whether farmers were engaged in any agricultural activity over the past seven days or not (Fox and Pimhidzai 2013). Under the revised ICLS standards, however, rural employment ratios are affected by an additional margin of variation – i.e. changes in farmers’ reports on the intended use of their produce – which is expected to lead to even larger seasonal fluctuations.

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