Drawing on a new ILO database, ILO’s 2019 « Small Matters » report provides an up-to-date and realistic assessment of the contribution of self-employment and micro- and small enterprises (hereafter referred to as “small economic units”) to employment – both in the formal and the informal economy – across the globe.
A key finding is that, globally, the self-employed and micro- and small enterprises (hereafter referred to as “small economic units”) account for 70 per cent of total employment.
The estimates presented in the report are based on a new ILO database that draws on national household and labour force surveys (as opposed to firm-based surveys) from 99 countries in all the world regions except for North America. Because these surveys target people rather than firms, they are able to cover self-employment and employment in all types of enterprises:
- Enterprises from all size classes: micro-enterprises (with 2 to 9 employees), small enterprises (with 10 to 49 employees) and medium-sized/large enterprises (with 50 or more employees)[1];
- Enterprises from the informal as well as the formal sector;
- Enterprises from agriculture, industry and services (including public services).(Read more…).
