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How to measure forms of employment and understand their impact

Is the analysis about a specific job?

Does it concern the nature of the economic risk and authority that individuals experience at work?

 

Work relationships (ICSE-18)

  • The International Classification of Status in Employment (ICSE-18) provides the basis for classifying jobs according to the nature of work relationships.
  • Main categories include employees, independent workers and dependent contractors.
     
Work relationships can also be classified according to their permanence and stability 

ICSE-18 classifies employees into four groups: 

  • Permanent
  • Fixed-term
  • Short-term and casual 
  • Paid apprentices, trainees, and paid interns

Independent workers and dependent contractors may also experience higher or lower permanence and stability

     
Does it relate to the way in which employment is coordinated, performed or compensated in time and space?

Work Modality

Involves five broad aspects:

  • Working time
  • Work location
  • The electronic allocation and supervision of work tasks
  • Forms of remuneration and payment 
  • Cooperation within and across organizations

Is the analysis about social protection?

Does the worker lack access to social insurance because of their job?

Not a form of employment, but a social protection gap

  • Some forms of employment are associated with little or no social protection
  • In large part depends on the design of social protection programs and regulations

Is the analysis about the situation of individuals or households?

Does it involve how employment relates to individual or household circumstances?

Interaction between forms of employment and person-level circumstances

  • Captures the characteristics of people who are in different types of jobs
  • Considers the fit between the worker and the job
  • Examines wider labour market and economic participation including multiple job holding and income from sources other than employment

Is the analysis about relationships between employment and well-being?

Quality of Employment frameworks offer a unique lens to understand the relationship between employment and well-being                                                                                                                  

  • Some forms of employment (e.g. own-account work) may be an indicator of quality of employment in themselves
  • Other dimensions are not forms of employment, but describe aspects of the quality of the working environment such as relationships at work, the physical environment and mental health risk factors