Empleo informal en el comercio minorista: entre la subsistencia y la innovación

Abstract

Informal employment in retail trade is one of the main forms of labor market integration in urban areas, especially in economies with limited formal employment opportunities. The objective of this research is to examine the link between informal employment, subsistence, and innovation among informal traders in the North Florida market. The research combines qualitative and quantitative methods, drawing on the analysis of specialized publications. The results show that informal trade plays a key role as a subsistence strategy through the adoption of incremental innovations, such as product diversification, reorganization of sales methods, and basic use of digital technologies, contributing to economic sustainability. The general hypothesis test, Table 3 indicates a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.401), with a significance level of 0.004, < 0.05. This allows us to reject the null hypothesis and support the alternative hypothesis, showing that informal employment in retail trade is statistically significantly related to the living conditions and levels of innovation of informal workers in the market in northern Florida. In particular, it is evident that job insecurity, institutional conditions, and economic dependence directly influence the strategies that informal traders develop to sustain their economic activities, reaffirming the nature of informality in urban markets.