Labour, - but on what condition?

Let me today follow up my previous reflection on labour, but from a different perspective.  When I look into the official statistics of Malawi, I find a surprisingly low unemployment rate.  If I did not know better, I would believe that the labour market is thriving.  There are many reasons that there is a mismatch between official statistics and the reality.

When we travel along streets and roads in urban and rural Malawi we see economic activities on the roadside.  The photos in this blog give only a small glimpse of what we encounter.

The woman is preparing a piece of wood that will end up as a table for sale along the road in our area 12 of Lilongwe.  

From this vendor I purchased similar furniture for our guards.  

Vegetables are sold in more or less organised markets, as can be seen from this photo. 

 Along the roads in Lilongwe I can buy bananas every day on my way back from work if I want.

What is the common thread between these photos?  The chances are that their activities are not officially registered, but are part of the informal economy.  The informal economy is thought to represent a major portion of the real economy of Malawi.  These people never turn up in the unemployment statistics, since they are outside the system that is recorded in official statistics.

Those who work in the informal economy do not have any social safety net in terms of social security, pension rights, or other normal benefits that registered workers have.  They spend long hours, and very often travel long distances to reach their informal places of work.  The question is not idleness, since they work hard.  This does, however not translate into prosperity.  The majority of those in the informal sector remain poor.

Part of the problem has been that Malawi, until late last year, did not have a system of officially register birth.  There was no official ID cards being issued.  Big masses do not have a legal identity, and therefore they are prevented from officially taking loans, buying property, starting business...

Introduction of birth certificates and ID cards will hopefully be one step in the direction of channeling hard work and investments into formal economy, and more people into systems of social safety nets.  Perhaps the statistics of unemployment will be more realistic sometime in the future.