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STS364 Elena Z. et al.
of the sustainable development goals of the 2030 Agenda. For example, the
ILO’s publication “Decent Work and the Sustainable Development Goals: A
Guidebook on SDG Labour Market Indicators" states that “Many of these
indicators are intrinsically related to others, which is why it is important to
interpret them as a coherent set so as to paint a comprehensive picture. In
many cases, interpreting a given labour market indicator along with others
sheds light on patterns and helps to avoid misinterpretations” 2.
The trans-boundary (between separate goals) and cross-boundary
(between countries) effect of the mutual influence of SDG indicators is noted
in the OECD report “Measuring Distance to the SDG targets”3 [p.18]. The
relevance of our research is confirmed by the fact that the said OECD report
noted that “… identification of synergies and trade-offs for many of SDG
targets is an empirical question that has been little researched so far.” 3[p.20].
As one of the few examples, we can give an estimate of paired correlation
coefficients between the SDG indicator values in the study “Achieving a
Sustainable Urban America” 4[p.18]. From the above publications, it becomes
clear that the question of analysing the SDG indicators, taking into account
their mutual influence and consistency with the real economic situation, is
quite significant, but there are no methods for solving this yet. We offer an
information base and methods for solving this problem on the example of the
relationship between informal employment indicators and SDG indicators,
bearing in mind that informal employment is a “litmus” of the level of a
country's development and socio-economic situation in it.

2. Methodology
a. Database
The study was conducted by countries, the choice of which was determined,
on one hand, by the representativeness of these countries in typological
groups by level of economic development (according to the World Bank
methodology), and on the other hand, by the availability of statistical data on
all indicators used in the study.
In the research economies are divided into four income groupings: low (LI),
lower-middle (MI), uppermiddle (UMI), and high (HI). Income is measured
using gross national income (GNI) per capita, in U.S. dollars, converted from
1
local currency using the World Bank Atlas method . This paper uses World
Bank definition for 2018 fiscal year .
2

1 https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/378834-how-does-the-world-
bank-classify-countries
2 Following the World Bank definition, for the current 2018 fiscal year, low-income economies
are defined as those with a gross national income (GNI) per capita, calculated using the World
Bank Atlas method, of US$1,005 or less in 2016; lower middle-income economies are those
with a GNI per capita between US$1,006 and US$3,955; upper middle-income economies are
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