United Nations report cited by Beck: "two billion people--more than 60 percent of the world's workers, and more than a quarter of the total human population--earned their livelihoods primarily through informal work" (287, emphasis in original)
Beck: this "is the single most important economic phenomenon of the past several decades" (287)
"When you hear the terms 'developed countries' and 'developed markets,' it is useful to understand them as meaning 'places where people have comparatively more access to formal employment.' 'Emerging markets' are places where people have less access, or none. The UN found that in Africa, 86 percent of employment is informal. In Asia-Pacific, it's 68 percent, and in the Americas it's 40 percent, with the vast majority of informal work concentrated in countries other than the United States. In Arab states, 69 percent of workers are stuck in the informal economy."