All publications: informal employment + informal enterprises + informal economy

Executive summary: Opportunities for extending social security coverage in Jordan

The report aims to support Jordanian policymakers in the extension of social security to informal workers. It formulates typologies for informal workers outside the social security system, analyses the main constraints to coverage and outlines a...

Opportunities for extending social security coverage in Jordan

The report aims to support Jordanian policymakers in the extension of social security to informal workers. It formulates typologies for informal workers outside the social security system, analyses the main constraints to coverage and outlines a...

Women domestic workers

Socio-economic impact of COVID-19 and beyond on women domestic workers in Nepal

The report aims to unfold the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 and beyond on women domestic workers in Nepal along with challenges faced and the way forward.

Research brief 3: Social Security of Platform Workers in China: findings and recommendations from two studies (2018-2019)

Joint UNDP/ ILO publication

Informality and Social Protection in African Countries: A Forward-looking Assessment of Contributory Schemes

Theory of Change

Transition from the informal to the formal economy - Theory of change

This umbrella theory of change provides the main pathways for the transition to formality of workers and enterprises. It is a general framework that can inform the development of theories of change focused on a specific sector, occupational groups,...

Research brief

COVID-19 and rising wage inequality: Trends and challenges in Thailand and Viet Nam

This brief presents quantitative trends in wage inequality in Thailand and Viet Nam during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020. Based on various measures, it highlights the rise of inequality as wages have been increasingly concentrated among the highest...

Enterprise Formalization: Tailored registration, tax and social security requirements for MSEs

Enterprise Formalization: Simplifying and facilitating business start-up and compliance

COVID-19 Pandemic in the World of Work

ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the world of work. 7th edition

ILO Working paper 22

Home-based work and homework in Ghana: An exploration

This research report explores the nature and character of home-based work and the more narrow concept of homework in Ghana.

DIILM Updates

Internal Labour Migration Governance

DIILM Update No. 4, January 2021

Social Protection Spotlight COVID-19

Towards solid social protection floors? The role of non-contributory provision during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond

The COVID-19 crisis has emphasized the importance of guaranteeing access to at least essential health care and to basic income security for all over the life cycle, as stipulated in the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202).

The Global Deal for Decent Work and Inclusive Growth - Thematic Brief

The Contribution of Social Dialogue to Gender Equality

Working from home: From invisibility to decent work

With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, many in the world’s workforce have shifted to homeworking, thereby joining the hundreds of millions of workers who have already been working from home for decades.

Enterprise Formalization: An Introduction

Information note and agenda: Technology and the Transition from Informal to Formal Economy

The ILO and UN-ESCAP are leading a research project and South-South learning exchange on the topic of technology as a tool to facilitate the transition from informal to formal employment. Policy innovations (simplified to ”e-formality”) will be...

ILO Working paper 21

Home bounded - Global outreach: Home-based workers in Turkey

This report focuses on industrial home-based pieceworkers and IT-enabled remote workers, who are commonly referred to in Turkey as “freelancers”.

ILO Working Paper 19

Trends and new developments in employment services to support transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa Regions

This paper presents the findings of a survey undertaken in selected countries in the Sub Saharan Africa and Middle East and North Africa regions (SSA and MENA) aimed at reviewing the status of employment service provision, challenges and...

Internal labour migration

Road map for Development of Policy Framework for the Inclusion of Internal Migrant Workers in India

This report gives a comprehensive overview of internal labour migration in India and provides a roadmap for including migrant workers in the development processes including the policy and programmatic interventions in the country.