PALESTINIAN SOCIETY - Fafo

activities like unpaid work in family farms or business, and severai
types of home production, are also included. Unpaid housework, like
child care, c1eaning, washing and cooking are, however, generally not
considered as work5.
Supply of Labour;
Labour Force Participation
The size of the labour force refers to the amount of labour available
in the economy. For macro-economic needs, focus is thus naturally
placed on the composition of the labour force. A living conditions
survey, however, should be as much concemed with persons not
working. Because involuntary non-activity represents a serious welfare
problem, the possible reasons for a person's inactivity must be
investigated.
Labour Force Participation
- an International Comparison6
Labour force participation is influenced, of course, by numerous
economic, political and cultural factors, working together in a complex
interplay. It may thus be instructive to compare labour force
participation in the occupied territories with other countries and
population groups. Figure 7.2 shows labour force participation as
percentage of total population, percentage of adults, adult males and
adult females for the occupied territories, for Israeli Jews and "Non­
Jew�" and for Norway. The share of the total population below 15
years is also indicated in the figure7• (Note that labour force participation
usually is expressed in per cent of the "working age population",
i.e. persons 15 years or older).
Figure 7.2 c1early illustrates the inverse relation between the share
of the total population in the labour force and the share of the
population below 15 years of age. The very young age structure in the
occupied territories is thus a major explanation of the relatively low
labour force participation as per cent of the total populationx•
In . addition to the effect of the population' s age structure, the
estimates for labour force participation ratio are determined by three
main factors:
First, as is the case in all surveys, measurement methods and
definitions are likely to have a strong influence. Respondents tend to
understand work as regular employment, which frequently leads to
under-reporting of many kinds oflabouractivitytypical of developing
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