Assessing Informal Employment and Skills Needs: Approaches and Insights from Regional and Local Labour Market Monitoring
So far, labour market observatories have mainly focused on monitoring formal employment. However, in many countries shadow economy plays an important role. It is difficult to measure the extent of informal employment as the economic activities carried out outside the norms and institutions take different forms, varying from subsistence farming to freelance work.
Among other things, the Annual Meeting of the EN RLMM addressed the following aspects of informal employment:
- Methods for monitoring the extent of informal employment and determining its different forms;
- Main sectors employing large numbers of informal workers;
- Reasons of employers and workers to engage in informal employment and the effects of these decisions on career paths;
- Policy responses aiming to shape the transition from in formal to formal employment relationships.
The conference presented insights from different regions in Europe and beyond and offered numerous opportunities for discussion and Networking.