The globalized environment was marked by shrinking economies and a reduction of employment opportunities, forcing many women into the informal sector.

Formal Sector

Informal Sector

The Gambia was well ahead of the developed world when it came to maternity leave for many years pregnant women had benefited from three months' paid maternity leave.

The annual growth rate of about 3.6 per cent in 2004 does not seem to have increased the generation and stabilization of formal employment.

Indeed, in some parts of southern China, the informal financial sector is growing to match the size of the formal financial sector.

On the other hand, the income and quality of work of people engaged in the informal sector are in general considerably lower than those of workers in the formal sector.

Items for information informal sector statistics

The role of the informal sector in generating employment opportunities

(g) The Delhi Group welcomed the initiative taken by ESCAP in formulating a project to strengthen statistics of informal sector employment and assured the cooperation of the Group in the implementation of the project

(b) The Delhi Group welcomed the initiative of ILO to collect data on employment in the informal sector and on informal employment according to the framework developed by the Seventeenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians and encouraged countries to cooperate in completing this data collection exercise

The private sector has not experienced sufficient growth, and in the public sector, the State has been forced to reduce the number of State institutions, thereby reducing public sector employment, with the result that workers have had to seek employment in the informal sector. Consequently, 70 out of every 100 economically active women work in the informal sector in conditions of underemployment.

Report of the Delhi Group on Informal Sector Statistics

Report of the Delhi Group on Informal Sector Statistics

Indicator 11 Women's share in paid employment in non agrarian sector

Given the overall increase of 72 per cent in the total number of employees, this shows that there has been a significant increase in female employment in the formal sector between 1983 and 2000 and that it has grown at a greater rate than total employment growth.

The average age of those employed in the formal sector has considerably increased, from age 36.6 in 1991 to 40 in 2000 (World Bank data, November 2002), which means that only limited numbers of the young workforce have got jobs in the formal sector, so a majority is employed in the informal sector.

With 21.2 million people, government is the leading field of employment.

On the other hand, young and unqualified labour is pushed into the informal sector.

The informal sector plays a significant role in African economies since it offers the means for many people to cope with the severe lack of employment opportunities in the public and formal private sectors.

Indeed, 92 of the labor force is employed in the informal sector.

Women employees in the informal sector do not have a statutory right to maternity leave.

In Greece, the private sector has been forced to adjust, but the government failed to keep its promise to reduce public employment.

11.14 While these figures reflect the formal sector, the average monthly salary in the informal sector varies quite considerably according to industry as well as between rural and urban settings.

Labor intensive industries in the tradable sector must be allowed to decline.

From depositors point of view, participating in the informal sector is a rational choice.

(d) Interregional programme of technical cooperation on the measurement of the informal sector and informal employment

Moreover, a large proportion of women in the region are employed in the informal sector.

The initiative for the Brady Plan did not come from the official sector at all.

And, as Iraq observer Joel Wing has pointed out, public sector employment doubled from 2005 to 2010, and now accounts for roughly 60 of the full time labor force.

Lost incomes will also drive down tax revenues, resulting in public sector employment cutbacks.

Labor costs in the US industrial sector are currently 25 lower than the European average.

Women do not seem to making a preponderant proportion of the informal sector workers.

Moreover, the finance, technology and linkages that larger companies bring with them can initiate the growth of local subsidiaries, ancillary companies and small scale enterprises in poorer localities, thereby generating higher levels of formal sector type employment and incomes.

In the end, it is the crippled financial system that is driving the wedge between China s large surplus of capital and formal financing for the country s SMEs. Indeed, in some parts of southern China, the informal financial sector is growing to match the size of the formal financial sector.

Developing country governments should reduce the share of the informal sector in an economy, through reform of the overall enabling environment for the formal economy.

Between 1990 and 2005, the sector s share in total employment fell by more than seven percentage points.

Even less information is available on the contribution of the informal sector to economic growth.

There may also be a bias against recruiting women by some employers in the informal sector.

While violence and instability have long marred the informal sector witness the country s high crime rate and frequent attacks on foreign traders they are becoming more common in the formal sector as well.

There is low labor market for women in the formal sector, but women's share in management positions is worse.

The tradable sector accounts for just 30 of the US economy (by value added), and employment growth in the tradable sector is negligible.

The LSMS analysis showed that 18 per cent of employees in the informal sector were under 25, and 7 per cent in the formal sector, the main reason being the level of the minimum wage.

If the financial sector declines, what will replace it in employment terms?

This may be the situation in India, where most workers have few rights, and the few large firms that are established in the formal sector tend to use a lot of labor saving capital in order to avoid hiring protected workers.