WORKERS RESPONSE TO JOB LOSS - FEMALE AND MALE INDUSTRIAL-WORKERS IN BRAZIL

It is often assumed that when formal sector workers in the Third World lose their jobs during a recession they move into the informal sector. Lack of state support rules out long periods of unemployment, above all for breadwinners. A survey of industrial workers in Brazil shows that following job loss in the early 1980s, resorting to the informal sector was more common for women than men, and less likely for the skilled than the unskilled. Unemployment and a return to industrial employment were most common experiences for male breadwinners. Workers' preferences and the structure of labor market opportunities explain much of this behavior. © 1991.