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Coronavirus is imperiling billions of informal workers—especially women

Coronavirus is imperiling billions of informal workers—especially women

As the novel coronavirus slowly spreads into the developing world, billions of people face a horrible choice: keep going to their informal jobs and risk contracting or spreading the virus, or stay at home and risk their family starving? Around 2 billion people—61% of the world’s working population—toil in the informal economy, and have little or nothing to protect them if they’re unable to go to work. The situation threatens to be particularly acute in Africa, where 86% of employment is informal, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).