What is informal employment? In April-June 2026, 53.84 out of every 100 workers in the Dominican Republic held an informal job

The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD) measures informal employment through its National Continuous Labor Force Survey (ENCFT), conducted since the third quarter of 2014. Informal employment covers workers who do not have access to social security as a result of their employment relationship. In April-June 2026 the rate was 53.84 %: 2,837,846 informal workers and 2,433,159 formal workers, out of 5,271,005 employed people aged 15 and over.

Sector versus job

The BCRD separates the informal sector (businesses that are not public, not registered with the taxpayer registry, RNC, and keep no auditable accounts) from informal employment (the worker has no social security through the job). Someone can work for a formal company and still hold an informal job; domestic service is counted separately.

Who they are

Out of every 100 informal workers in April-June 2026, 63.41 were self-employed in informal businesses (1,799,393 people), 12.17 were employees of informal businesses, 9.45 were domestic workers, 7.07 were employers in informal businesses, 6.32 were employees without social security in formal companies and 1.60 were unpaid family workers (Economía con Datos calculations with BCRD data).

Trend

A year earlier, in the second quarter of 2025, the rate was 53.97 %; when the survey began, in the third quarter of 2014, it was 57.65 %. The series peaked at 58.94 % in July-September 2021 and hit its low, 53.44 %, in January-March 2025. Figures for the latest quarter are preliminary.

Source: Banco Central de la República Dominicana, Encuesta Nacional Continua de Fuerza de Trabajo (ENCFT), principales indicadores del mercado de trabajo (document in Spanish).

This is an English summary by Economía con Datos. Read the full article in Spanish.

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