Jewell, C (2006) Informal employment: A threat or an opportunity for the UK construction sector? In: Boyd, D (ed.) Proceedings of 22nd Annual ARCOM Conference, 4-6 September 2006, Birmingham, UK.
Abstract
There are many myths about the informal economy, its size, its growth/decline and its impact on formal employment. The validity of measuring the informal economy is criticised by many researchers because of its lack of economic theory and the unreliability of data collection (Harding and Jenkins, 1989; Williams and Winderbank, 1998). Its impact on formal employment depends on whose perspective is taken into account. The government would be concerned over the loss of tax income whilst the industry may be affected by lack of health and safety, and skills training. On the positive side, informal employment provides more flexibility and it maintains economic activity, contributing 60% of its income to the formal economy (Schneider, 2002). Construction has a high proportion of informal employment compared with other sectors, due to the nature of its work - project-based and with few barriers to entry. The Small Business Council (2005) suggests a figure of 46.7% as the proportion of construction of all informal work in the UK. There have been changes in work practice over recent years with an increasing reliance on sub-contracting with a greater likelihood of informal employment (HM Treasury, 2000). The characteristics and drivers of informal employment in the UK construction sector need to be better understood. This paper considers whether informal employment is an opportunity as a 'new' labour market or if it is a threat to the UK construction sector.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction; employment; informal |
| Index terms: | small business, informal economy, income, work practice, labour market, economic activity, construction sector, health and safety, employment, validity, economic theory, sub-contracting |
| Subjects: | health safety and environment, management, economics, industry analysis, evaluation and assessment methods, organization, economic analysis |
| Topics: | Business Strategy, Health and Safety, Research Practice, Human Resources, Supply Chain Management, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here