Widespread economic restructuring of the past decades - a shift from manufacturing to
service sector jobs compounded by both the world food crises and the recent Great
Depression has resulted in an increase in forms of marginal employment and an increase in
small businesses, and a decline in male labour market participation - has changed the way
people are connected to the labour market. Scholars have begun examining how these
changes affect personal employment decisions. At the same time, there are heightened
interests in the extent to which informal economic activity exists.