Publications on informal economy

  1. Research brief

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

    27 January 2021

    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 wage earners and the disproportionate impact of lower wages on informal workers, youth and workers with lower educational qualifications. It presents a number of policy measures including enhanced wage support and active labour market policies to counter these dynamics.

  2. ILO Working paper 1

    "System needs update":Upgrading protection against cyberbullying and ICT-enabled violence and harassment in the world of work

    13 February 2020

    The term ‘cyberbullying’ has been used to describe aggressive conducts carried out through information and communication technologies (ICT), and can involve picture/video clips, emails, or social network sites, among others.

  3. A compendium of practice

    Interactions between Workers’ Organizations and Workers in the Informal Economy: A Compendium of Practice

    30 January 2020

    A compilation of concrete examples, drawn from around the world, showing how trade unions have sought to reach out to workers in the informal economy to reduce the decent work deficits they face and support their transition to formality.

  4. Flagship Report

    World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2020

    20 January 2020

    This report provides an overview of global and regional trends in employment, unemployment, labour force participation and productivity.

  5. Publication

    Garment Factory Characteristics and Workplace Sexual Harassment

    09 August 2017

  6. Publication

    DOLE’s Integrated Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program: Philippines

    09 August 2017

  7. Global Action Programme on Migrant Domestic Workers and their Families

    Decent work for migrant domestic workers: Moving the agenda forward

    24 November 2016

    This report is part of a broader ILO strategy to promote Decent Work for Domestic Workers. It builds on knowledge generated in the context of the European Union-funded Action Programme on Migrant Domestic Workers and their Families (2013–2016).

  8. ILO Research paper No. 14

    Global Supply Chain Dynamics and Labour Governance: Implications for Social Upgrading

    13 May 2016

    This paper examines how the emergence and change of the fragmented cross-national production system affects social upgrading in developing countries, focusing on the impact of private governance on labour conditions and workers’ rights. It also discusses the role of private voluntary standards in governing labour relations in GSCs, and their limitations and tensions with buyers’ purchasing practices.

  9. Introductory guide

    Labour inspection and other compliance mechanisms in the domestic work sector

    26 November 2015

    This publication aims to contribute to a better understanding of the challenges for compliance in the domestic work sector. It also identifies how countries have defined policies and practices to provide better services to domestic workers and their employers in the domain of working conditions, with a specific focus on labour inspection. The guide provides information in a user-friendly manner, aiming to assist member States to identify practical measures to address non-compliance issues and to better shape the action of relevant institutions, in particular labour inspectorates, to bring the laws protecting domestic workers into practice.

  10. © Shayan Mehrabi 2022

    Work4Youth Publications

    Informal employment among youth: evidence from 20 school-to-work transition surveys

    04 February 2014

    This report provides empirical evidence to confirm that informal employment, a category considered as “non-standard” in traditional literature, is in fact “standard” among young workers in developing economies. Based on the school-to-work transitions surveys (SWTSs) run in 2012-2013, the report finds that three-quarters of young workers aged 15-29 (at the aggregate level) are currently engaged in informal employment.