The percentage of people working in Colombia’s urban informal sector has dropped to 50.8% in March-May from 51.4% the same period last year, Colombia’s statistics bureau reported Tuesday.
According to statistic bureau DANE, the informal labor rate in Colombia’s 13 largest urban areas hit the lowest rate since 2008.
The reduction appears to be the result of more Colombians coming off of unemployment and acquiring formal jobs. From March to May, the DANE reported that total employment grew at an annual rate of 4.4%. Informal employment grew at 3.2%, indicating that employment in the formal sector grew slightly over this period.
The DANE reported that only 10.2% of informal workers had access to a pension plan, and that of the total workforce only 42.3% had social security.
Informal employment is defined as work outside of the regulated sector where businesses typically do not pay taxes and government regulation is ignored. In many developing countries it is not unusual for the majority of the workforce to be informally employed.