Consistent with the marginalization but not the globalization hypothesis, this paper finds that the level of lower-wage informal employment in California during the 1990s fell from 17% to 14% of the labour force, informal workers were more likely to be male, younger, non-white, foreign-born, and employed in the Personal Service and Agriculture sectors; and a Californian was more likely to work informally if residing in a relatively less populous, lower-income region with a relatively high rate of home ownership. Although welfare use had a positive effect on the probability of working informally in 1990, thereafter it did not.

Informal work Day labour Immigration welfare

California labor market employment informal sector United States North America immigrant population