What Is Missing from National Economic Recovery Plans? COVID-19 and the Informal Economy
- Mhlana, Siviwe, Moussié, Rachel, Roever, Sally, Rogan, Michael
- Authors: Mhlana, Siviwe , Moussié, Rachel , Roever, Sally , Rogan, Michael
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478139 , vital:78158 , ISBN 9780198887041 , 10.1093/oso/9780198887041.001.0001
- Description: At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020, there was nearuniversal acknowledgement that employment losses, globally, would be borne disproportionately by vulnerable workers, in general, and informal workers, in particular (ILO 2020a). Of the world’s 2.2 billion informal workers, it was estimated that 1.6 billion would be among the most severely affected by job losses and reduced working hours (ILO 2020b). The result of this impact has been the reversal of decades of progress in human development. For example, the number of people living in extreme poverty in emerging markets and developing economies was expected to increase by 100 million by the end of 2021 (World Bank 2021a). Similarly, the gendered burden of job losses has threatened progress towards gender equality, as evidenced by the highly uneven recovery of employment between women and men throughout 2021 (ILO 2021a). Country-level data on job losses provides support for the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) initial projections about the vulnerability of informal workers to the global ‘pandemic recession’. Most informal workers in the world are located in low-and middle-income countries and are in self-employment. Data from ILOSTAT shows that working hours in lower-income countries in 2021 were about 7 per cent below their pre-COVID (2019) levels, while the corresponding decrease was only about 4 per cent in high-income countries (ILO 2021c). Data from Peru in 2020 suggests that the difference in the decrease in labour income between employees and the self employed (who are largely in the informal sector) was 21 percentage points (ILO 2021b; see also Chen and Vanek, Chapter 2 in thisvolume).
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mhlana, Siviwe , Moussié, Rachel , Roever, Sally , Rogan, Michael
- Date: 2024
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478139 , vital:78158 , ISBN 9780198887041 , 10.1093/oso/9780198887041.001.0001
- Description: At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020, there was nearuniversal acknowledgement that employment losses, globally, would be borne disproportionately by vulnerable workers, in general, and informal workers, in particular (ILO 2020a). Of the world’s 2.2 billion informal workers, it was estimated that 1.6 billion would be among the most severely affected by job losses and reduced working hours (ILO 2020b). The result of this impact has been the reversal of decades of progress in human development. For example, the number of people living in extreme poverty in emerging markets and developing economies was expected to increase by 100 million by the end of 2021 (World Bank 2021a). Similarly, the gendered burden of job losses has threatened progress towards gender equality, as evidenced by the highly uneven recovery of employment between women and men throughout 2021 (ILO 2021a). Country-level data on job losses provides support for the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) initial projections about the vulnerability of informal workers to the global ‘pandemic recession’. Most informal workers in the world are located in low-and middle-income countries and are in self-employment. Data from ILOSTAT shows that working hours in lower-income countries in 2021 were about 7 per cent below their pre-COVID (2019) levels, while the corresponding decrease was only about 4 per cent in high-income countries (ILO 2021c). Data from Peru in 2020 suggests that the difference in the decrease in labour income between employees and the self employed (who are largely in the informal sector) was 21 percentage points (ILO 2021b; see also Chen and Vanek, Chapter 2 in thisvolume).
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Informal employment: what is missing from national economic recovery plans?
- Mhlana, Siviwe, Moussié, Rachel, Roever, Sally, Rogan, Michael
- Authors: Mhlana, Siviwe , Moussié, Rachel , Roever, Sally , Rogan, Michael
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/477952 , vital:78139 , ISBN , https://hdl.handle.net/10419/283788
- Description: Throughout 2021, fiscal stimulus packages were introduced to jump-start the COVID-19 'post-pandemic' economic recovery process. While calls for economic recovery packages that promise to 'build back better' have come from many directions, the under-allocation of recovery resources directed at workers in the informal economy threatens the recovery of livelihoods for the majority of the world's workforce. This paper analyses the economic recovery approaches of two low-income (Bangladesh and Kenya) and two middle-income (South Africa and Thailand) countries. The paper assesses the economic recovery responses in light of what is known about the impact of the crisis on informal workers globally, and the structure of informal employment in each country. The paper assesses national recovery packages with particular attention to the largest segments of informal employment and those where women are over-represented. The paper concludes with a reflection on what more needs to be done to ensure that national level economic recovery packages can support the livelihoods of the majority of workers in emerging and developing countries.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mhlana, Siviwe , Moussié, Rachel , Roever, Sally , Rogan, Michael
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/477952 , vital:78139 , ISBN , https://hdl.handle.net/10419/283788
- Description: Throughout 2021, fiscal stimulus packages were introduced to jump-start the COVID-19 'post-pandemic' economic recovery process. While calls for economic recovery packages that promise to 'build back better' have come from many directions, the under-allocation of recovery resources directed at workers in the informal economy threatens the recovery of livelihoods for the majority of the world's workforce. This paper analyses the economic recovery approaches of two low-income (Bangladesh and Kenya) and two middle-income (South Africa and Thailand) countries. The paper assesses the economic recovery responses in light of what is known about the impact of the crisis on informal workers globally, and the structure of informal employment in each country. The paper assesses national recovery packages with particular attention to the largest segments of informal employment and those where women are over-represented. The paper concludes with a reflection on what more needs to be done to ensure that national level economic recovery packages can support the livelihoods of the majority of workers in emerging and developing countries.
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The changing nature of work: understanding precarity and the gendered individualisation of risk in post-apartheid South Africa
- Authors: Mhlana, Siviwe
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Precarious employment , Labor supply -- South Africa , Labor supply -- Statistics -- South Africa , Precarious employment -- South Africa , Informal sector (Economics) -- Employees -- South Africa , Women employees -- South Africa , Women temporary employees -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/172146 , vital:42170
- Description: Against the backdrop of workplace restructuring globally, post-Apartheid South Africa is experiencing consistently high levels of unemployment, the deterioration of employment security, and limited improvements in earnings. This trend in the proliferation of low-paid, unstable and otherwise insecure employment has given rise to a segment of the literature that is centred on the growing precariousness of work in a number of different contexts. This thesis reviews empirical work on the changing nature of labour-intensive production in the past two decades, with particular focus on the trends in non-standard, informal and precarious employment. Further, the thesis examines the shift in the gender structure of South Africa’s manufacturing sector and how it affects the share in the benefits of employment, particularly with regard to social reproduction. In so doing, the thesis expands the critical theoretical narrative about the challenges of labour under neoliberalism by providing an intersectional perspective of precarious work in post- Apartheid South Africa.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Mhlana, Siviwe
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Precarious employment , Labor supply -- South Africa , Labor supply -- Statistics -- South Africa , Precarious employment -- South Africa , Informal sector (Economics) -- Employees -- South Africa , Women employees -- South Africa , Women temporary employees -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/172146 , vital:42170
- Description: Against the backdrop of workplace restructuring globally, post-Apartheid South Africa is experiencing consistently high levels of unemployment, the deterioration of employment security, and limited improvements in earnings. This trend in the proliferation of low-paid, unstable and otherwise insecure employment has given rise to a segment of the literature that is centred on the growing precariousness of work in a number of different contexts. This thesis reviews empirical work on the changing nature of labour-intensive production in the past two decades, with particular focus on the trends in non-standard, informal and precarious employment. Further, the thesis examines the shift in the gender structure of South Africa’s manufacturing sector and how it affects the share in the benefits of employment, particularly with regard to social reproduction. In so doing, the thesis expands the critical theoretical narrative about the challenges of labour under neoliberalism by providing an intersectional perspective of precarious work in post- Apartheid South Africa.
- Full Text:
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