| Code | SL.TLF.BASC.MA.ZS |
| Indicator Name | Labor force with basic education, male (% of male working-age population with basic education) |
| Short definition | The ratio of the labor force with basic education to the working-age population with basic education. Basic education comprises primary education or lower secondary education according to the International Standard Classification of Education 2011 (ISCED 2011). |
| Long definition | The ratio of the labor force with basic education to the working-age population with basic education. Basic education comprises primary education or lower secondary education according to the International Standard Classification of Education 2011 (ISCED 2011). |
| Source | Education and Mismatch Indicators database (EMI), International Labour Organization (ILO), uri: https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/bulk/, publisher: ILOSTAT, type: external database, date accessed: September 25, 2025 |
| Topic | Social Protection & Labor: Labor force structure |
| Dataset | WDI |
| Unit of measure | % of male working-age population with basic education |
| Periodicity | Annual |
| Reference period | 1970-2023 |
| Aggregation method | Weighted average |
| Statistical concept and methodology | Methodology: Labor force surveys are the preferred source of statistics on employment by educational attainment, since they provide information on both the labor market situation of individuals and their level of educational attainment. Such surveys can be designed to cover virtually the entire non- institutional population of a given country, all branches of economic activity, all sectors of the economy and all categories of workers, including the self-employed, contributing family workers, casual workers and multiple jobholders. In addition, such surveys generally provide an opportunity for the simultaneous measurement of the employed, the unemployed and persons outside the labor force (and thus, the working-age population) in a coherent framework. Other types of household surveys and population censuses could also be used as sources of data on employment by educational attainment. The information obtained from such sources may however be less reliable since they do not typically allow for detailed probing on the labor market activities of the respondents.
Statistical concept(s): The labor force participation rate is the labor force as a percent of the working-age population. The labor force is the sum of all persons of working age who are employed and those who are unemployed. Data disaggregated by level of education are provided on the highest level of education completed, classified according to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). Data may have been regrouped from national classifications, which may not be strictly compatible with ISCED. |
| Development relevance | Statistics on levels and trends in educational attainment of the labor force can: (a) provide an indication of the capacity of countries to achieve important social and economic goals; (b) give insights into the broad skill structure of the labor force; (c) highlight the need to promote investments in education for different population groups; (d) support analysis of the influence of skill levels on economic outcomes and the success of different policies in raising the educational level of the workforce; (e) give an indication of the degree of inequality in the distribution of education resources between groups of the population, particularly between men and women, and within and between countries; and (f) provide an indication of the skills of the existing labor force, with a view to discovering untapped potential. |
| License URL | https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/public-licenses#cc-by |
| License Type | CC BY-4.0 |
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