Informal Sector in South Asia: A Case Study of Bangladesh
Informal sector becomes the influential economic activities in Bangladesh in considering the contribution to the GDP and labor market over decades. Research show that 87.71% of the workers in Bangladesh are under informal employment. The highest concentration of informal workers is found in the rural areas (92%). Workers engaged in informal employment are mostly in agriculture; hunting and forestry; wholesale and retail trade; manufacturing; and transport, storage, and communications sectors. Women (91.3%) are most likely to be engaged in informal employment than men (86.6%); and women are generally unpaid family workers and in the private household sector. Workers under form alemployment are paid better than those under informal arrangements. For each sector, wage differentials between formal and informal workers are significant. Informal workers are found to have significantly less benefits than those with formal employment, except for free meals and free lodging. In particular, self-employed and unpaid workers comprise a little over 20 million of informal workers, although less than 2 million of them enjoy benefits. The purpose of this paper is to find out the problems of Informal Sector in Bangladesh and to identify the future aspect of Informal sector for the economic growth of the country.
