International Labour rumbles Rumsfeld

You've heard of Donald Rumsfeld's 'unknown unknowns' of course? You know, the things we do not know we don't know? Well the International Labour Organisation in Geneva is way out ahead of him. Here is how the ILO defines the informal sector of an economy, one that in many emerging economies provides hand-to-mouth jobs for millions. Here goes: Persons in informal employment (a job-based concept) represents the sum of informal jobs in formal enterprises, informal sector enterprises, and households producing goods for own consumption or hiring paid domestic workers (cells A+C in the matrix). Persons employed in the informal sector (an enterprise-based concept) include the informal jobs in informal enterprises plus formal jobs in informal sector enterprises (cells A+B in the matrix). Persons employed in informal employment outside the informal sector (i.e., those employed in the formal sector and households producing goods for own use or employing paid domestic workers) corresponds with cell C in the matrix. Good luck figuring that one out!  In South Africa 'persons in informal employment' make up about 1/3 of all the employed population. There is a raging, at times vitriolic, debate about how to get more people, especially youngsters into work. In India it's over 80% and even in tiny Panama, over 40%. The QSL is from the US Albrook Air Force Station in Panama heard in Joburg, South Africa on USB in 1988. This was another of my self-made cards, sent to the station along with a reception report. The Station was closed in 1997 and is now a civilian airfield.