Informal Employment in the World

108
DOI: 10.20542/0131-2227-2024-68-7-130-140
EDN: SVZSBK
Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences
(IMEMO), 23, Profsoyuznaya Str., Moscow, 117997, Russian Federation.

Received 24.08.2023. Revised 28.03.2024. Accepted 01.04.2024.

Abstract. The share of informal employment in the world is almost 60% of all employment in the labor market. The informal sector is an important part of the economy, especially in low-income countries with high rates of population growth low urbanization. The informal sector creates jobs, providing income for more than two billion people worldwide. In difficult circumstances, the informally employed (NFE) are precisely those people who are willing to do lower quality work, which does not guarantee them social protection, labor rights, and decent working conditions. Widespread informal employment in all its forms entails adverse consequences of various kinds for workers, enterprises, and society as a whole. For example, informal economic units tend to have low productivity and lack access to financial resources, which creates barriers to decent work and sustainable development. This article highlights the objectively existing conditions and features of development in different parts of the world, assessing their impact on the social composition and the number of participants in informal labor relations. At the same time, it shows the unambiguous position of the international community, which is the leitmotif of all documents of the UN, ILO, IMF, OECD – providing decent work and social protection to all informal workers. The factor of education in employment depends most of all on the political will of both the global community and the leadership of a particular country, therefore it can be influenced, unlike the prevailing economic conditions. Education creates human potential, contributes to the development of the country and, as will be shown in the article, affects the number of informal employåås. The level of education is closely connected with the level of informal employment in all regions.

Keywords: labor market, informal employment, global indicators, social composition, influence of education


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For citation:
Khokhlova M. Informal Employment in the World. World Eñonomy and International Relations, 2024, vol. 68, no. 7, pp. 130-140. https://doi.org/10.20542/0131-2227-2024-68-7-130-140 EDN: SVZSBK



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