Informal Employment Research Paper

4.8 Employment

The inability of the modern sector to generate adequate wage employment suggests that a large proportion of new entrants into the labour force are currently seeking employment in the informal economy or are involved in some form of self-employment. Informal economy employment can be as a main or secondary activity and as self-employed person or as an employee. The informal economy has become an important aspect of Government attention as a result of its role in providing opportunities for employment and income generation. The informal economy also plays and important role in providing basic needs and practical skills to a growing proportion of the labour force. The discussion in this section is to examine the main features

4.8.1 Employed persons in informal economy

Figure 4.6 discloses that 300 people interviewed for the sample survey are employed (both employee and self-employed) in the informal economy. Of the given number 59.0 percent are self-employed without employing anyone and 41.0 percent are the employees employed in the informal economy. Table 4.9 shows the distribution of employment in the informal economy by area, age and sex. It is indicated that 100.0 percent of the respondent people earn a living from the informal economy. The majority of

Service industry is the sector that provides by far the most number of job, 39.3 percent of the total employee in the informal economy. The majority of this job is in Otjomuise (25.4 percent), and it includes mostly 40.7 percent youth employment (21-30 years). This pattern reflected in Retail industry also, although average youth employments slightly differ between Katutura central and Otjomuise with 22.2 percent. However, the pattern of age for employment structure varies from 21-30 years, 31-40 years and 41- 40 years in all the