But María Enchautegui at the University of Puerto Rico and Richard Freeman at Harvard University have looked into this, and reckon that counting unofficial workers boosts the employment rate only to 55%, at best.
Many firms therefore chose to restructure themselves into smaller units employing part-time or unofficial workers on piece rates, who could be dismissed easily and did not enjoy guaranteed wages.
On Tuesday, she said the government would start a $21 billion public works program and offer tax breaks for investors with money abroad and for companies that recognize unofficial workers.
In Chengdu, the provincial capital, on May 21st a police car shadowed about 100 unofficial relief workers who marched through the streets after dark, carrying candles and chanting patriotic slogans.A fast-growing middle class with money to spare on travel and, as it now seems, on charity, did not wait for official encouragement to help out in Sichuan.
He attracts the attention both of the authorities and of beautiful Amaka, unofficial social worker to the city's prostitutes, who is trying to stop the clandestine trade in body parts.
The last couple of months have seen unofficial post-workers' strikes at eight Royal Mail sites – Wigan, Maidstone, Bristol, Meday, Swansea, Newcastle, Tarporley and Hamilton.
Most stoppages were unofficial, led by workers' factory committees or militant leftist groups rather than by the (party-linked) trade unions.
Rates are highest among migrant workers (unofficial local residents) who tend to be poor and from rural areas.
"On the flip side of that, families will send their kids to unofficial mental health workers, who are members of the community and see things from the same perspective," she continues.
In this study we did not ask about unofficial payments to health workers as part of the individual questionnaires, but payments to health workers or health workers stealing the medicines were not raised at all as concerns when the focus groups discussed problems of access to ART.
In late 2008, officials in Guangdong Province, where labor disputes are common, issued a report saying that 500 or so unofficial lawyers who represented workers were a source of growing trouble.
