BOX 6 Labor force participation The standard UN/ILO labor force framework is used to understand employment dynamics. According to this approach, the working-age population is defined as all individuals ages 15–64 years. An employed person is someone who has reported having worked (with or without pay or profit) for at least one hour in the last seven days or was temporarily absent from a job to which they maintained a formal attachment. Unemployed persons are those who were without work during the seven-day reference period but were available and actively seeking work in the four weeks leading up to the survey. Together, these two groups make up the economically active population. The remaining share of the working-age population is outside the labor force (OLF) and considered economically inactive according to the national definition. This category includes full-time students, homemakers, those unable to work due to a disability, and so forth, as well as the group of discouraged jobless persons who were available to work but not actively seeking (or actively seeking but not available, although this subgroup is often negligible). The latter part of the inactive population can be referred to as the “potential labor force.” Furthermore, Shona community members ages 15 to 24 years are more likely to be employed than nationals of the same age (p<0.05), which partly explains why Shona youth are less likely than nationals to engage in secondary and higher education (Figure 24). 32. The most common work activity among the Shona population is self-employment, while for nationals the most common activity is wage employment. Among those who report being employed in the last seven days, 78 percent of the Shona population reported working for themselves or having a nonfamily business enterprise compared to 30 percent of nationals in urban areas (Figure 32). The lack of recognition as citizens in Kenya, coupled with the lack of identity cards, prevent the Shona from being formally employed. Therefore, they are more likely to earn a living by doing informal work such as basket weaving, mostly for women, and carpentry, mainly for men (UNHCR Kenya 2017). Furthermore, the lack of documents forces Shona community self-employees to sell their products below market value through middlemen and intermediaries. With respect to wage employment, only 24 percent of the Shona population reported working for wages compared to 58 percent of nationals in urban areas. Volunteering, mainly in churches, is common among the Shona community, with 13 percent involved in this kind of activity. While there is no gender difference among the Shona population in terms of activity done in the last seven days, national women are more likely to be self-employed and working in agriculture than their male counterparts (Figure 33). 33.  Among those OLF, the main reason for not working is schooling. About 66 percent of the Shona population OLF cite their status as full-time students (Figure 34). Of those full-time students, 73 percent are ages 15–18 years while 5 percent are between 19 and 25 years old. This means that this population is accumulating human capital and skills, and if measures are put in place to expand the labor market to absorb these potential future entrants, overall well-being and standards of living in the future can be improved. Family responsibilities also account for 6 percent of inactivity while 6 percent Findings 10183_Shona Report.indd 25  25 12/14/20 2:56 PM