17 million Peruvians work, but more than 50% are informal

At the end of 2022, 17,756,400 Peruvians were part of the employed population nationwide, according to the INEI.

By geographical area, in the urban area there are 14,027,600 Peruvians with a job; while, in rural areas, there are 3,728,800. There is a slight decrease of 1.2% in the rural workers, while in the city dwellers there is an increase of 5.0%.

Although the data reflects that it recovered the universe of workers in Peru compared to 2019 —in 1.8%, that is, 320,200 jobs—, precarious work still predominates, with an emphasis on the informal.

There are 9,886,800 people who work informally in urban areas, 11.4% more than the year before the coronavirus —just over 1 million citizens. Even compared to 2020, it can be seen that the population that works without receiving benefits increased by 29.4%.

In addition, by company size, microenterprises employ 8,737,500 informal workers, 13.9% more than in 2019. Companies that employ 51 or more people reduced the hiring of informal labor by 7.7% .

Under that trend, INEI specifies that the adequate employment population weighs down a gap of 3%. Currently there are 9,275,100 Peruvians who have a job that covers and attends to everything in order. There are 283,400 fewer citizens than in 2019.

And, focusing on underemployment —that is, those who receive less than the minimum wage and work fewer hours—, the universe is 8,481,300 nationwide. It is worth noting that this total is included within the informal population in the urban area, although it also considers the formal workers who work part time.