# **1 Introduction**

In October 2013, the 19<sup>th</sup> International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) adopted a new resolution concerning statistics of work, employment, and labor underutilization (ILO 2013b, referred to as the “19<sup>th</sup> ICLS standards” or the “revised standards”), which supersedes previous international standards for labor statistics (dating back to 1982).<sup>1</sup> An important element of the revised standards is to narrow the definition of employment to work performed for pay or profit, that in the case of agricultural activities is based on the _self-declared main intended use of the output_ . Own-use production of goods, such as crop cultivation mainly or only for own/family consumption, is no longer considered employment and, hence, does not count towards employment or labor force participation. Instead, such work is captured as a separate form of work and used to produce the headline indicator of “own-use production work”.<sup>2</sup> The main objective of these changes was to increase visibility of all forms of work, paid and unpaid, by advocating for separate measurement and acknowledging that individuals are often engaged in different types of work. These changes have significant implications for the calculation of labor statistics in developing countries, and especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where a large share of the population is engaged in the production of goods for family use. They also raise important issues with how to measure this definition in a consistent and robust manner.

The operationalization of the 19<sup>th</sup> ICLS standards requires household surveys that are used to measure labor market engagement – e.g. dedicated labor force surveys (LFS) and multi-topic household surveys – to differentiate between individuals engaged in own-use production work and individuals engaged in employment. While own-use production of goods can take many forms (e.g. collection of firewood or water, food preservation, etc. for family use), the revised standards have the largest implications for the measurement of agricultural work, where surveys need to distinguish between a farmer producing for own/family use or for sale. This, however, is difficult to measure, and historically, there has been scant empirical evidence and guidance on measurement practices. While the 2007 Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08) distinguishes “subsistence farmers, fishers, hunters and gatherers” (sub-major group 63) and “market-oriented skilled agricultural workers and forestry, fishery and hunting workers” (sub-major groups 61 and 62) (ILO 2013a), this separation has had limited practical relevance, as occupational breakdowns rarely go below the level of major groups (i.e. combining all agricultural

> 1 The International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) is a standard-setting body in labor statistics, hosted every five years by the International Labour Organization (ILO). As per the tripartite structure of the ILO, its participants include experts from governments (typically officials from the ministries dealing with labor issues and national statistical offices), employers' and workers' associations.

> 2 The 19th ICLS also introduced a new ‘forms-of-work’ framework.

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