ECONOMIC CONJUCTURE AND TREND IN INFORMAL EMPLOYMENT

Seyfettin Gürsel and Mine Durmaz

In the last and third research brief studying informal employment, we examine the evolution of informal employment over time. In previous two research briefs, we elaborated its structural determinants and its regional distribution, respectively. We already know that relatively larger shares of manufacturing and services in the employment, higher average education level of labor and higher average firm size are associated with lower level of informal employment. Besides, there is a fluctuating trend in the decrease in informality in recent years due to economic growth and employment growth. While high growth rate and high level of employment accelerate the decline in informality, low growth rate and low level of employment might cease the improvement in informality. Although the economic growth is quite low during the last years of the period under study, decreasing informality during these years might be attributed to large growth in employment in the same period. Nevertheless, in last six months decelerated employment growth accompanied by low GDP growth obscures the direction of changes in informality.

doc. ResearchBrief173

pdf. ResearchBrief173