ABSTRACT
This chapter explores whether there are limits, ceilings, to the growth of urban informal employment in South America (SA). It analyses the factors that determined the evolution of employment in the urban informal sector (UIS) in the region. The chapter suggests that the large increase in UIS was due to the continuous increase, in the long term, of labour supply, primarily because of the urban population and activity rate growth. The relationship between the unemployment and the urban informal sector (UIS) in the long run is positive, given the large increase in the economically active population (EAP). The results are as expected, with the expected signs of the coefficients. A phenomenon with the characteristics of the urban labour informality must be addressed as a long-term challenge, with policies designed to change the structural behavioural patterns of demographics, economics and the role of the state of the countries in the region.
