Prospects and Difficulties of Informal Employment in China Under the Enormous Wave of World Urbanization

Worldwide urbanization is a phenomenon and trend of urban development worldwide. In the context of accelerated global urbanization, China’s urbanization rate has risen from 19.39% in 1980 to 67% in 2024. Informal employment promotes urbanization and absorption. The labor force plays a key role, but it is faced with issues such as the protection of rights and interests. This paper aims to explore its prospects and dilemmas. Data statistics, model analysis, and case studies were used. The innovation point is related to sociopolitical issues from the perspective of social reproduction, combined with the analysis of informal urbanization and the crowding out effect. The discussion shows that through improving the law, optimizing policies, balancing macroscopic influences, and considering the flexibility and protection of rights and interests, informal employment needs to achieve benign interactions between the individual and society and the economy.