The reality of the informal market in Quito in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020

Abstract

The year 2020 was a complicated period for the world economy due to the health emergency produced by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Latin American countries and Ecuador were no exception. In the case of Quito, capital of Ecuador, the incidence of the pandemic has caused unemployment levels to increase, and therefore, informality as well. The city had already been going through serious problems in labor policy in recent years, where its informal economy is the second most representative at the national level, after Guayaquil. Therefore, it is important to know how Quito's informal market has been affected in 2020. In order to obtain the data, a qualitative approach was applied and the research design was documentary and bibliographic, being the main sources the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) and the National Survey of Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment (ENEMDU). The research concludes that 13,90% of the Economically Active Population (EAP) of Quito belongs to the informal market, being mostly young people, who are engaged in selling products such as clothing, food, among others, on the street. Likewise, there are 9.606 informal traders in the city of Quito, of which 70% of informal traders have permits to sell, while the remaining 30% are self-employed and are not regulated.