Following the guidelines of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the labour market variables are:
- Economically active population: Population aged 16 or over that is working or actively looking for a job in the reference week.
- Employed population: Those people who, in the reference week, carry out a work activity either as an employee (salaried) or as a self-employed person (not salaried). Employed persons can be considered and classified from different points of view:
- According to their professional situation: Non-salaried or self-employed (employers, businesspersons without salaried employees and independent workers, members of cooperatives, and family benefit beneficiaries) and salaried or salaried workers. Employees can be classified according to the sector where they work (public sector employees and private sector employees) and according to the contract or employment relationship (permanent and temporary).
- According to the duration of the working day: With regard to this criterion, employed persons can be divided into full-time employed and part-time employed.
- Unemployed: People aged 16 or over who in the reference week have been available for work but who, actively looking for it, have not found a job. The unemployed can be subdivided into two groups: Those seeking their first job and those who have worked previously.
- Economically inactive population: People who, being 16 or over, are not employed or unemployed. This broad group would include students, retirees, houseworkers, pensioners, disabled to work, etc.
