Measurement and mirage: The informal sector revisited Recent years have seen rapidly expanding scholarship and policy advice on the causes and consequences of informality, relying on the increasing availability of comparative measurements of informal sectors. This has created an impression of a consensus around a clearly conceptualized and quantified object of study – that when we talk about the informal sector, we know what we are talking about. In this article I argue that this impression is largely a mirage. I suggest that underneath increasingly accepted measurements, and actively masked by them, there remain both a fundamental conceptual confusion and substantial diversity in understandings of what the informal sector is. Questions of definition have been moved “downstream” into the specifications of statistical models and measurements, resulting in a lack of transparency and the emergence of feedback loops between common conceptions and methodological assumptions. This has led a large part of the current literature on informal sectors to generate potentially spurious insights that feed into substantive development policy discussions around taxation, registration and social protection. I review the causes and consequences of these issues, drawing on two measurement methods, recent policy reports and new survey data from Ghana, and suggests ways forward.

New in in the International Labour Review / @ilr-rit.bsky.social: "Measurement and mirage: The informal sector revisited" by Max Gallien: doi.org/10.16995/ilr...

Also available in French, in Revue internationale du Travail 165 (2), and Spanish, in Revista Internacional del Trabajo 145 (2).

🧵 (8/8) 📚 Plus, book reviews on the ICESCR, worker-to-worker organizing by @ericblanc.bsky.social, and a Bob Hepple Award speech from Alain Supiot (@college-de-france.fr) on labour law and the "debt of life" at #LLRN7.

🔖 Browse the full #OpenAccess issue: bit.ly/4bnJ9ST

#AcaSky

Green jobs, labour market transitions and social protection: Longitudinal analysis for Viet Nam This article examines labour market transitions towards green employment in Viet Nam and their relationship to social protection. Using a task-based approach and longitudinal labour force survey data,...

🧵 (7/8) 🇻🇳 Anil Duman (@weareceu.bsky.social) & @sevane.bsky.social show that for Vietnam's just transition, tertiary education and social insurance are key to moving into green jobs, but only for higher-skilled workers.

🔗 bit.ly/47a8I7j

#JustTransition #SocialProtection

Legitimacy without members? Hungarian lessons on how to guarantee trade union representativeness Collective bargaining has a marginal and steadily diminishing role in employment regulation in Hungary. Flaws in the legal framework are certainly among the main reasons behind low and decreasing cove...

🧵 (6/8) 🇭🇺 Tamás Gyulavári & Gábor Kártyás (PPKE) analyze Hungary's declining collective bargaining, offering lessons for labour markets with low union density.

🔗 bit.ly/4lKiJ15

#CollectiveBargaining #TradeUnions

🧵(5/8) Agnieszka Piasna & @wzwysen.bsky.social from
@etui.bsky.social use 🇪🇺-wide data to show migrants are 20% more likely to do platform work, often driven by vulnerability & disadvantage in traditional labour markets.

🔗 bit.ly/4sRZ4OV

#PlatformWork #MigrantWorkers

Job polarization: Evidence for Türkiye In this article, we examine labour market polarization dynamics in Türkiye. First, we use highly refined microdata to classify tasks – mainly abstract, routine and manual – to conduct analysis at the ...

🧵(4/8) 🇹🇷 Evren Gülser (KHAS) & Ensar Yilmaz (@yildizedu.bsky.social) provide evidence for Türkiye, showing polarization driven by technology, education, and rising female employment in both low- & high-wage jobs.

🔗 bit.ly/4dyICyL

#Routinization #FutureOfWork

The wage structure of Polish workers in Germany Germany has historically received a substantial inflow of immigrants from Poland. Polish workers are the second-largest foreign employment group in Germany and contribute substantially to the German e...

🧵(3/8) Stephan Brunow (HdBA), Katarzyna Miszczak (WUEB/UEW), Holger Seibert (@iabnews.bsky.social) & Aleksandra Wrona (Futurum) use admin data to analyze Polish workers in Germany, finding lower wages than German peers & competition effects 🇵🇱➡️🇩🇪

🔗 bit.ly/4sSmELt

#Labourmigration

Assessing the quality of green jobs: An empirical analysis of French data Our article analyses the quality of green jobs in France, applying a definition of green jobs that has emerged in recent years to the French labour force survey – a large, representative dataset. Usin...

🧵(2/8) @mathisbachelot.bsky.social & Mathilde Guergoat-Larivière from @clerseumr8019.bsky.social at @univlille.bsky.social analyze 🇫🇷 data, finding green jobs often mean lower wages & security for low-skilled workers, challenging the "uniformly good" narrative.

🔗 bit.ly/4rLR0hX

#JobQuality

Are green jobs always good jobs? Why are migrants overrepresented in platform work? How do unions stay relevant?

Our latest issue latest issue explores these questions & more.

📖 Read Vol 165, Issue 1: bit.ly/4bnJ9ST

📘via @openlibhums.org

👏 Congratulations, Max!

In his new article with the ILR, Max revisits how we define and measure the informal sector, and the implications for research and policy.

🔔 Out now and #OA via @openlibhums.org with an early view from our Issue 2 for 2026

@ids.ac.uk

Innovation in academic publishing! 🌅

At #ILOInnovationDay, we presented our new diamond #OA model via @openlibhums.org / @ojcollective.bsky.social & the growing movement toward community-led, non-commercial academic publishing that expands access to research beyond paywalls🚫🪙

🔗 ilo.org/ilr
#acasky

"Automation does not necessarily make recessions more harmful for workers."

Joanna Siwińska-Gorzelak from University of Warsaw found robot adoption can cushion unemployment during downturns. 🤖📊

Read more ⬇️
bit.ly/3Mqnu2H

Do robots make recessions worse for workers? 🤖📉

Our latest research revisits #OkunsLaw and finds that higher automation is linked to smaller rises in unemployment during downturns.

New evidence on automation & employment dynamics ⬇️

bit.ly/3Mqnu2H

#AcaSky

Most gig riders don’t fit legal labels.

81% occupy a grey zone, economically dependent yet partially autonomous.

Read why legal protections must evolve beyond existing binaries ⤵️

bit.ly/4qzhnHe

🛵 Are gig workers employees? Contractors? Or something in between?

Our latest research finds most platform riders in #China fall into a legal grey zone, i.e., economically dependent yet partially autonomous.

Read more ⤵️
bit.ly/4qzhnHe

🎉 Félicitations à Mathis et Mathilde

Using 🇫🇷 labour force survey, Mathis & Mathilde complicate the idea of “good green jobs” as job quality varies, especially by skill level.

We’ve published this research as #OA from @clerseumr8019.bsky.social @univlille.bsky.social in Issue 1 for 2026.

Read ⤵️

🎉 Big congratulations to @wzwysen.bsky.social on this new
paper in our Issue 1 for 2026!

Using 🇪🇺-wide data, authors find migrants are ~20% more likely to do platform work, especially in delivery & ride-hailing, reflecting labour market vulnerability, not preference.

Early view now in English ⤵️

👩‍👧‍👦🌍 How do care crises shape labour outcomes...❓

New ILR research, published #OA with @openlibhums.org, examines gendered employment effects of COVID-19 among informal workers in rural Viet Nam

Now available in English, French & Spanish ⤵️

🧵(8/8) 📚 Also in this issue: three book reviews on labour institutions during COVID-19, informality in Ecuador, and labour law as economic policy.

👉 Browse the ILR's latest issue, now #OpenAccess via @openlibhums.org.

🔖 ilo.org/ilr

Responding to the challenge of AI: Retrieving human intelligence through labour In this article, we argue that both the exaggerated fascination with, and fear of, artificial intelligence (AI) stem from a flawed understanding of human intelligence (HI) – one that fails to retrieve...

🧵 (7/8) Rethinking #AI and work

Jordi Agustí-Panareda & Jaume Agustí-Cullell (@iiiacsic.bsky.social) argue for reclaiming human intelligence through labour, challenging narrow visions of AI and the future of work.

🔗 bit.ly/4pnsMcs

#HumanCentredWork

An incomplete <em>double movement</em>: Spain’s legislative strategy for platform courier reclassification Digital labour platforms, which have long operated outside conventional employment frameworks, are now facing a regulatory drive. Spain seems to be at the forefront of this international effort, notab...

🧵(6/8) Regulating platform labour

@t-vieira.bsky.social (@eui-eu.bsky.social) examines Spain’s Ley Rider, finding stronger protections alongside new forms of control, outsourcing, and algorithmic management.

🔗 bit.ly/3N3mAZP

#PlatformRegulation #WorkersRights

In search of quasi-subordinate workers in China: A typology of gig riders by economic dependency and subordination The employment status of platform workers has generated debate both in China and internationally. Drawing on legal thresholds from selected developed countries and statistical indicators developed by ...

🧵(5/8) Who are “quasi-subordinate” gig workers in China?

Wei Tu & Xueyu Wang (@utoronto.ca) map economic dependency and subordination among delivery riders, finding most fall outside the employee/self-employed divide.

🔗 bit.ly/4bgJK90

#PlatformWork

The COVID-19 pandemic and the intertwined care crisis: Evidence of gendered employment effects on informal workers in rural Viet Nam Substantial informal employment and excessive unpaid care burdens on women are characteristic of developing economies. This article takes a gender lens to examine the employment effects of the COVID-1...

🧵 (4/8) Care, informality, and crisis.

Minh Tam Thi Bui, Thai Quyen Bui & Tuan Thanh Nguyen show how COVID-19 deepened gendered employment losses among informal workers in rural Viet Nam.

🔗 bit.ly/3Lwy0EW

#CareEconomy #GenderEquality

The impact of diversity on the performance of work teams: A global study This study examines the impact of several diversity dimensions and characteristics in work teams (e.g. nationality, first language, team size and managerial function) on their performance. We use step...

🧵 (3/8) Team diversity and performance

Tomáš Michalička, Drahoslav Lančarič, Dimuth Nambuge & Michal Munk analyse 900+ teams in 39 countries, showing how nationality, language, and experience shape team outcomes.

🔗 bit.ly/3N4ials

#Diversity #WorkTeams

Exploring the impact of automation on employment during expansions and contractions: An examination of Okun’s Law This article examines the impact of robotization on the short-term correlation between employment and output. We estimate the Okun’s Law relationship utilizing panel data from 35 OECD countries for th...

🧵 (2/8) Automation and recessions

Does automation protect jobs during downturns?

Michał Brzozowski & Joanna Siwińska-Gorzelak revisit #OkunsLaw across 35 OECD countries and find that automation can cushion job losses in recessions.

🔗 bit.ly/4aLsPvi

#Automation #FutureOfWork

What protects jobs during downturns? Who is covered in the platform economy? How should labour law respond to AI?

These questions are at the heart of our latest issue, featuring new evidence from OECD countries, China, Viet Nam, and Europe.

📖 Read Volume 164, Issue 4
👉 ilo.org/ilr

🧵 (1/8)

La Reseña también está disponible en Español en Revista Internacional del Trabajo 144 (4): doi.org/10.16995/ilr...

📖 How did wage-employment institutions help France navigate the COVID-19 crisis?

Jean-Pascal Higelé reviews "Face au Covid, l’enjeu du salariat" (ed. Claude Didry) in our finale issue for 2025.

🌍 Read now in English, French & Spanish via @openlibhums.org

Platforms as inequality regimes: Researching legal services This article examines how inequalities in traditional labour markets shape experiences and outcomes on platform work. The research applies Acker’s framework of inequality regimes, with a focus on gend...

Want the full picture behind these findings? 📘

The article by Debra Howcroft & Claire Mumford is published in our Issue 3 for 2025.

🔗 Read the full article: bit.ly/4hcSKwV

💬 “Women averaged £48 an hour… men £99.”

Claire Mumford (@unilancashire.bsky.social) shows how gendered assumptions of value shape platform earnings, with men leveraging past career advantages while women face persistent pay gaps. ⚖️📊