Future of work

This work addresses current definitional understandings of informal employment, conceptual approaches to explain its participation, and solutions to support informal economies in transitioning to more formal avenues of employment. Informal economies disproportionately employ young, immigrant, minority, and female groups. Informal employment encompasses work that does not follow employment and tax regulations but is otherwise legal and legitimate. The nature of informal employment is often associated with precarious/involuntary work hours, insufficient social protection, and lack of collective action to improve working conditions. The authors propose that COVID-19 may represent a catalyst in improving the support of informal employment by public institutions. Results suggest that governments need to consider explicit support for informal workers to create fair, resilient, ethical structures to allow for transition to more formal employment. They also find that the motivation to participate in informal employment is incentivized by the increase in remote work, the online purchasing supply chain, and job insecurity among developed economies.