Informal employment in Latin America by country 2023

Among the countries with available information, Bolivia had the highest share of employment informality, amounting to almost 85 percent of the total employed population. This means that more than three out of every four workers in Bolivia were informally employed in that year. With data of 2023, Uruguay was one of the countries with the lowest share of informal employment in the region, with around 26.44 percent of the employed population being informally employed.

Informal employment as percentage of total employment in selected countries in Latin America and the Caribbean as of 2023

Characteristic	Share of total employment
Bolivia*	84.92%
Guatemala*	79.73%
Peru	71.65%
Ecuador	68.15%
El Salvador*	67.45%
Paraguay	66.84%
Mexico	56.33%
Panama	56.13%
Colombia	55.93%
Dominican Republic	55.68%
Argentina	50.45%
Brazil	37.85%
Costa Rica	37.1%
Chile	27.36%
Uruguay	26.44%

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Release date

2024

More information

Region

LAC

Survey time period

2023 or latest year available*

Supplementary notes

* Data refers to 2022.
According to the source's definition: "Employment in the informal sector refers all persons who, during a given reference period, were employed in at least one informal sector enterprise, irrespective of their status in employment and whether it was their main or a secondary job. An informal sector enterprise is (1) an unincorporated enterprise and (2) a market enterprise (i.e., it sells at least some of the goods or services it produces), and (3) meets at least one of the following criteria: (i) the enterprise is not registered, (ii) the employees of the enterprise are not registered, or (iii) the number of persons engaged on a continuous basis is below a threshold determined by the country."

The release date given is the last update date provided by the source.

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