Civilian employment includes all persons in employment as defined below:

5.1 The employed include all persons above a specified age who during a specified brief period, either one week or one day, were in the following categories:
- 5.1.1 Paid employment: At work: persons who during the reference period performed some work for wage or salary, in cash or in kind; With a job but not at work: persons who, having already worked in their present job, were temporarily not at work during the reference period and have a formal attachment to their job. This formal job attachment should be determined in the light of national circumstances, according to one or more of the following criteria: (a) if he continued receipt of wage or salary; (b) an assurance of return to work following the end of the contingency, or an agreement as to the date of return; (c) the elapsed duration of absence from the job, which, wherever relevant, may be that duration for which workers can receive compensation benefits without obligations to accept other jobs.
- 5.1.2 Self-employment: At work: persons who during the reference period performed some work for profit or family gain, in cash or in kind; With an enterprise but not at work: persons with an enterprise, which may be a business enterprise, a farm or a service undertaking, who were temporarily not at work during the reference period for any specific reason.

5.2 For operational purposes, the notion of some work may be interpreted as work for at least one hour.

5.3 Persons temporarily not at work because of illness or injury, holiday or vacation, strike or lock-out, educational or training leave, maternity or parental leave, reduction in economic activity, temporary disorganisation or suspension of work due to reasons such as bad weather, mechanical or electrical breakdown, or shortage of raw materials or fuels, or other temporary absence with or without leave should be considered as being in paid employment provided they have a formal job attachment.

5.4 Employers, own account workers and members of producers’ co-operatives should be considered as being self-employed and classified as at work or not at work, as the case may be.

5.5 Unpaid family workers at work should be considered as being self-employed irrespective of the number of hours worked during the reference period. Countries which prefer for special reasons to set a minimum time criterion for the inclusion of unpaid family workers among the employed should identify and separately classify those who worked less than the prescribed time.

5.6 Persons engaged in the production of economic goals and services for own and household consumption should be considered as being self-employed if such production comprises an important contribution to the total consumption of the household.

5.7 Apprentices who received pay in cash or in kind should be considered as being in paid employment and classified as at work or not at work on the same basis as other persons in paid employment.

5.8 Students, homemakers and others mainly engaged in non-economic activities during the reference period, who at the same time were in paid employment or self-employment as defined in (5.1) above should be considered as employed on the same basis as other categories of employed persons and be identified separately, where possible.