In the past four years, the black labor market has halved in size. However, it is still two times bigger than in 2007.
“Our estimates show that that share grew at a rather fast rate during the crisis and contracted afterwards. Compared with the peak of the crisis, the black labor market has decreased, yet its volume is still bigger than before the crisis,” Vytautas Žukauskas, chief researcher at LLRI, said at a news conference on Monday.
According to the data from the European Commission (EC), in 2007, the shadow labor market in Lithuania reached 11 percent of the total labor force, he said. LLRI estimates that in 2009, it reached around 44 percent, and in 2011, approximately 25 percent.
Around 5 percent of the polled said that they had been engaged in paid employment unofficially, 8 percent said that they had been paid partly cash in hand, and 9 percent used both illegal sources of income.
Nearly two-thirds, or 62 percent, of the polled said that they joined the black labor market because it promised bigger pay than legal wages, and 52 percent claimed they were forced to accept unreported pay after failing to find a legal job.
In future, the black labor market will grow due to an increase in minimum wages, LLRI president Žilvinas Šilėnas says.
The think tank conducted the poll of more than 1,000 Lithuania’s residents early in 2013.
