May 2026
18May

Jamaica. Pension regulator says micro-pension plan unworkable for informal sector

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) has ruled out a state-administered micro-pension scheme for the more than one million workers currently without retirement coverage. A micro-pension is a retirement savings product designed for low-income and informally employed workers, allowing sporadic or irregular contributions as low as $400. "It was determined that a micro-pensions product would not be feasible for Jamaica," an FSC consultation paper stated. "However, it was stressed that the  Approved Retirement Schemes (ARS) framework could be strengthened for greater accessibility...

May 18, 2026
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08May

Socio-economic Status of Informal Sector Business Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh

By Dr. Nazrul Islam Informal sector business is a highly growing sector of Bangladesh which is defined as the businesses that are neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government or authority . A large number of small and medium enterprises (SME) fall into this category of the informal sector of businesses. The major driving forces behind the growth of informal sector businesses in Bangladesh are the rise in household demands fir goods and services manufactured and supplied by...

May 8, 2026
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08May

Moldova. Six out of ten agricultural workers work informally and are deprived of social protection

He said about six out of ten people employed in agriculture work without official registration, without labor contracts and without social protection, being paid for temporary work such as harvesting or tending crops. “By comparison, the rate in non-agricultural sectors is six times lower – one in ten. What is informal employment? These are people who accept day jobs because they need money for bread, medicine, bills or debts at the store. More often than not, they don’t even ask...

May 8, 2026
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04May

The Wage Illusion: Pakistan’s Informal Economy and the Crisis of Shared Prosperity

On the first of May, the world does more than commemorate labour; it measures the distance between economic growth and those who actually produce it. The origins of this day lie in the Haymarket Affair in Chicago, where a demand as basic as an eight-hour workday was met with violence, yet ultimately reshaped global labour standards. Nearly 140 years later, that legacy exists alongside a global economy in which, according to the International Labour Organization (ILOSTAT, 2023), over 60%...

May 4, 2026
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April 2026
30Apr

Nigeria: CPs – Pencom Sustains Push for States, Others

The National Pension Commission has sustained the drive for states, local governments and employers in formal sector to fully embrace the Contributory Pension Scheme, writes Ebere Nwoji One of the major headaches of the present leadership of the pension sector regulatory authority, the National Pension Commission (PenCom), is how to succeed in making every Nigerian with genuine means of livelihood enrol into the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS). The commission said the overall aim is to ensure that at advanced age, every...

April 30, 2026
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29Apr

Informal Workers in Mexico: A Statistical Snapshot

By José de Jesús Luján Salazar & Joann Vanek In Mexico City and urban Mexico, women comprise 42 per cent and men 58 per cent of the labour force. In Mexico nationally, women’s share is slightly lower at 39 per cent. Between 2013 and 2019, employment in Mexico increased by more than 5 million workers but women’s share of employment did not increase significantly. The data in this brief are based on the second quarter of the 2013 and 2019 Encuesta Nacional...

April 29, 2026
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28Apr

PH leads region in pension coverage, but long-term viability questioned

The Philippines is emerging as one of Asia’s “stronger performers in pension coverage,” based on data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). “It is a sign that more workers are being brought into formal social protection systems,” said Dr. Alicor Panao, an Inquirer data scientist and associate professor at the University of the Philippines. Based on population coverage, about 55.5% of working-age Filipinos ages 15-65 are enrolled in pension schemes. Across Asia, where large informal sectors often exclude workers,...

April 28, 2026
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17Apr

2024 Labour Overview of Latin America and the Caribbean

By International Labour Organization Five years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the labour market outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024 shows relative stability in its main labour market indicators. In line with the moderate pace of economic growth, the employment rate increased slightly in 2024 compared with the previous year. Labour supply, as measured by the participation rate - the percentage of people of working age who are working or looking for a job...

April 17, 2026
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17Apr

India’s Informal Sector and AI: Jobs, Justice, Policy

India’s informal sector is unlikely to disappear in the age of AI, but without deliberate policy interventions, it may become increasingly precarious, unequal, and exclusionary. The central issue is not whether AI will be adopted, but whether India can shape this transition to safeguard and enhance informal livelihoods rather than passively allowing technology to displace them at scale. India’s growth story still rests on informal work: over 90 percent of workers are employed in the informal sector, mostly in tiny, unregistered...

April 17, 2026
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14Apr

Ghana: NPRA to Launch Digital Platform to Boost Informal Sector Pension Enrolment

THE National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) has announced plans to roll out a comprehensive pension digital platform aimed at significantly increasing pension coverage among informal sector workers across the country. The initiative forms part of a broader policy direction by the Authority to introduce targeted incentives that will encourage workers in the informal economy to enrol onto personal pension schemes and secure their retirement income. Speaking at a media engagement in Accra, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the NPRA, Mr...

April 14, 2026
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