Page 59 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 1

STS364 Musikhin S.

Suggestions for improving the methodology for
estimating informal employment based on a
sample survey of the labour force
Musikhin Sergey
Analytical Centre by Government of Moscow, Moscow, Russian

Abstract
Assessment of the impact of the variability of the annual sex-age structure of
the population on the final indicators of informal employment. The prospect
of combining methodological approaches to the population.

Keywords
Indicators of informal employment; distribution methodology for sample
surveys (LFS); official statistics.

1. Introduction
Informal (shadow) employment is a type of employment in the informal
economy, when the fact of establishing labour relations between an employee
and an employer is hidden from the official authorities. Usually, these
relationships are hidden by the initiative of the employer or employee in order
not to pay taxes or circumvent this or that law. In this case, the calculation is
usually made in cash, often the employer is not interested in the past of the
employee and his documents.
One of the elements of informal employment is the number of workers
who perform additional work in the main place of work with official
registration, but without official supplements for overtime work. Also to
informal employment include semi-formal labour relations, which are formed
with the accrual of the minimum wage to the employee and compensation in
the "envelope" full equivalent of the value of his work.
In Russia, as in most countries, the government pays great attention to the
legalization of informal employment, which requires reliable statistical
evaluations of this employment category.

2. Methodology
In the Russian Federation, methods for calculating one component of
informal employment - “Number of employees not reflected in the reports of
organizations” are presented in the methodology for forming the balance of
time spent. The calculation of this indicator is based on a comparison of the
indicator “Number of employees of enterprises”, obtained from the results of
the LFS (Labour Force Survey) [Hussmanns R. (2004)], and the same indicator
obtained from the data of the mandatory state statistical reporting enterprises.

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