A Review of Informal Employment Research

With the development of the economy and society, employment forms have shown a trend of diversification. Informal employment has become an important form of employment, and governments have introduced policies to protect the rights of informal workers. This paper reviews the literature on informal employment and summarizes the definition, role, and impact of informal employment, governance, rural informal employment, and women’s power in informal employment. The study concludes that the impact of informal employment is twofold. On the one hand, informal employment provides employment opportunities and contributes to economic growth. On the other hand, the wages, working environment, and institutional security of informal workers are inferior to those of formal workers. In addition, most studies have focused on urban spaces, and there are fewer studies on rural informal employment, especially for rural women. Due to gender, education level, and family care, informal employment has become the main employment form of the rural female labor force, and it is particularly important to study their employment status and rights protection.