Abstract

Introduction: Informal employment refers to jobs and enterprises that lack coverage by formal arrangements, in law or in practise. Countries have different measurement criteria for informality making it challenging for international comparison. This and recent developments in measuring status at work and employment led to the need to update international standards that guide measurement of informality. Uganda in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) undertook an engendering informality pilot study to compile informality statistics and inform the development of the new standards in the lead up to the 21st International Conference of Labour Statisticians (2023). The study focused on engendering informality statistics in Labour Force Survey methods by testing questions and question sequencing.

Rationale: UBOS through her demand driven approach and strategic objective of strengthening statistical production and development agreed to undertake the pilot study in order to contribute towards development of standards by testing new questions and modules for measuring informality. This exercise provided the Bureau an opportunity for capacity building in conducting qualitative studies that complement quantitative studies. UBOS also gained more understanding of the informal economy (gender perspective) for evidence-based planning and policy formulation given the 2021 National Labour Force Survey estimated that 92% of Ugandans were in informal employment including agriculture.

Approach: The study had 2 stages of testing; (1) Qualitative (cognitive interviews) conducted by the Centre for Basic Research in August and December 2021 with the objective of identifying any problems in understanding questions and (2) Quantitative data collection from 1,600 households undertaken by UBOS with the objective of generating evidence and supporting development of international guidance and tools. Each stage had 2 rounds and interviews were done in local languages (translations) based on an English questionnaire. For the quantitative field work; training of the enumerators and data collection were conducted using Computer Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI) in July/August 2022 (Round 1) then October/November 2022 (Round 2). The 2nd round introduced a test of proxy effect.

A total of 100 Enumeration Areas (EA) were sampled and stratified into 4 sub-regions purposively. Then, a two-stage PPS sampling strategy was employed for each stratum, at the first stage, primary sampling units (Enumeration Areas-EAs) were selected. At the second stage, from each EAs, 22 households (11 for Option A and 11 for Option B) were selected following a listing exercise. Households with members involved in subsistence agriculture or any informal activity were targeted. Each interview took 45-60 minutes depending on the number of household members.

Conclusion: UBOS will make a presentation that will highlight the key challenges, lessons learnt and recommendations for future related engagements with a view of encouraging countries to take part in such studies. The Bureau’s collaboration with ILO in conducting the pilot study helped strengthen the technical capacity of selected UBOS staff in undertake of qualitative studies and improved Labour Force Survey data collection tools particularly informality questions and training of researchers.