TITLE:
A Review of Informal Employment Research
AUTHORS:
Ximei Kong, Jiyu Wei
KEYWORDS:
Informal Economy, Informal Employment, Informal Workers
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Applied Sciences,
Vol.13 No.12,
December
8,
2023
ABSTRACT: With
the development of the economy and society, employment forms have shown a trend
of diversification. Informal employment has become an important form of
employment, and governments have introduced policies to protect the rights of
informal workers. This paper reviews the literature on informal employment and
summarizes the definition, role, and impact of informal employment, governance,
rural informal employment, and women’s power in informal employment. The study
concludes that the impact of informal employment is twofold. On the one hand,
informal employment provides employment opportunities and contributes to
economic growth. On the other hand, the wages, working environment, and institutional
security of informal workers are inferior to those of formal workers. In
addition, most studies have focused on urban spaces, and there are fewer
studies on rural informal employment, especially for rural women. Due to
gender, education level, and family care, informal employment has become the
main employment form of the rural female labor force, and it is particularly
important to study their employment status and rights protection.