SNA, which is valid to date. However, since the 1993 SNA, countries have been encouraged to measure own-use services under the (wider) SNA _general_ production boundary. This information is sometimes compiled in satellite accounts, as an annex to the national accounts (OECD 2002; Esquivel 2011).

In the realm of labor force statistics, the 13<sup>th</sup> ICLS in 1982 defined the “economically active population” as “all persons who furnish the supply of labor for the production of economic goods and services as defined by the United Nations systems of national accounts and balances” (ILO 1982: par. 5). Explicitly included was “all production and processing of primary products, whether for barter in the market or for own consumption” (ILO 1982: par. 5). The revised ICLS standards, by narrowing the concept of employment to “work performed for pay or profit”, not only revised previous labor statistics standards, but also broke the previous congruence between employment and the SNA production boundary. In addition, the 19<sup>th</sup> ICLS standards introduced a new concept of “work”, which captures all activities within the SNA _general_ production boundary (see below for further discussion).

# **_Why a new definition of employment?_**

The 19<sup>th</sup> ICLS sought to address multiple concerns with the 13<sup>th</sup> ICLS standards. Among them was the notion that the previous definition of employment, by combining work for pay or profit with own-use production work, was too broad and therefore limited the usefulness of employment statistics as an indicator of labor market performance. Similarly, the previous concept of unemployment was perceived as too narrow, since farmers producing for family use and other individuals performing own-use production work, by virtue of being considered as employed, were ineligible for classification under unemployment (ILO 2013a).<sup>6</sup> By narrowing employment to work performed for pay or profit, the revised ICLS standards are expected to render employment and unemployment statistics in developing countries more responsive to cyclical fluctuations, economic crises and structural change, which may be a desired feature to guide economic and social policy reforms. A related practical concern with the 13<sup>th</sup> ICLS standards was that many countries, de facto, did not fully adhere to the standards but excluded some groups of workers (e.g. some own-use production workers, certain volunteer workers, etc.) from the employment measure, which impaired cross-country comparability of labor statistics.

The 19<sup>th</sup> ICLS also addressed the long-standing critique that own-use services (domestic housework and childcare, as examples), which are disproportionately performed by women and children, were treated

> 6 Because the new ICLS standards limit employment to work performed for pay or profit, own-use production workers now qualify for unemployment, conditional on whether they are available and actively searching for employment. However, it remains to be seen whether many farmers producing mainly or only for own use will meet the ‘actively searching for employment’ criterion. Other measures of labor underutilization, particularly time-related underemployment, may be more relevant for this population group (see ILO 1998, 2013c for more details).

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