Making volunteer work visible: supplementary measures of work in labor force statistics

Under the current definitions of labor force status, one person can be working in a job (in retail sales, for example) and be counted as employed because he or she is being paid, while another person can be working in a nearly identical job (such as in retail sales for a charity organization’s consignment shop) and be counted as not in the labor force because he or she is not receiving pay. Retirees doing substantial amounts of volunteer work are classified as not in the labor force, even when their work is done in a traditional workplace. We do not suggest changes in the official statistical concepts of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; however, we discuss issues relating to an expanded measure of work to supplement the current definition to include volunteers, and we construct measures consistent with that definition from currently available surveys.