International Labor Organization (ILO) announced that informal employment in Albania is 56.7 percent of the total number of employees reported by the Labor Force Survey conducted by INSTAT in 2019. 

Of the total informal workers, 63.9 percent belong to the agricultural sector, 12.6 percent to the trade sector, 7.6 percent to construction, 4.2 percent to restaurants and hotels. Further, the industry sector has 3.2 percent of informal workers, Transport 3%, in the services sector 1.9%. 

Professional activities, those of public administration, arts and entertainment are less exposed to informal employment. 

More detailed data show that men are more inclined to work informally. 59 percent of all working men work informally, versus 54 percent of women. Excluding the agricultural sector, 40 percent of employed men work informally, compared to 32.2 percent of women.

Of the total number of people working illegally, 73 percent of them work in non-tax formalized activities and another 26% work in domestic activities as self-employed. Only 0.6% of uninsured employees work in tax-registered activities. 

Until 2019, Albania had the highest level of employment in the Western Balkans with 53.8% of the able-bodied workforce, but the World Bank has analyzed that employment growth may have partly reflected the growing formalism of the labor market. After 2015, the government has taken action against informality, making an increased share of employment just formalization. 

But the labor force survey analyzed by the ILO shows that informal employment continues to be a worrying phenomenon for Albania, which could be further exacerbated by the pandemic crisis. 

At the end of 2019, INSTAT reported 1.2 million people employed, of whom it was reported that only 782.000 people pay insurance from the General Directorate of Taxes.

(Source: Monitor)