Precarious Labour in Asia: Exploring Challenges and Solution to Labour Insecurity through Case-Study-Based Evidence from 8 Asian Countries

2026-07-22

A recent ILO report estimates that two billion workers are active in the informal economy. The relevance of the phenomenon is even higher if the secondary effects of informal employment are considered and is likely to get worse, given that climate change has come to increasingly affect those living in conditions of vulnerability, pushing more people into the informal sector. Although informal economic activity is widely present in Europe and North America, constituting around 20% of the national GDP, developing and emerging economies suffer disproportionately from this phenomenon. For example, the ILO estimates that Africa, Asia and Latin America host 93% of the world’s informal employment and have been on the rise due to the Covid-19 crisis. Altogether, the World Bank and ILO estimate that almost a billion people entered precarious work because of the pandemic, with women and young people being the most affected categories. PRELAB network includes academic and development organisations, all with a major focus on informality and development, to: 1) Train researchers in methodologies to measure informality in a global perspective; 2) Conceptualise ways to apply qualitative and quantitative methodologies that were successfully used Eastern Europe and Central Asia to our target countries in the Asia Pacific region; 3) Produce a consistent narrative on how to measure and tackle informality in emerging economies; and 4) Engage with policymakers and business actors, in addition to the scientific community, to identify ways to apply these approaches into development practice worldwide.

Latvia

2025-10-15