Pearl River      For many years, when I would visit Delhi or Bengaluru where we have organized unions and associations of street vendors, along with other informal workers, visiting with some of the workers, they would frequently ask me if there were street vendors in the United States.  I would say, yes and no.  Not like India or so many other countries, but, yes, in places like New York City, street vendors were common, though less so in New Orleans, but they could be found on Canal Street hawking jewelry and souvenirs.  I would shrug at my lame answers, they would nod, and we would go on.

All of which made me delighted to stumble onto an extensive survey of street vendors in New York City that at least that could provide more detail the next time I’m asked.  The report,

…is based on data collected from a comprehensive survey administered to more than two thousand street vendors in 2021 by the Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center. The survey data was analyzed by the Immigration Research Initiative using statistical weights provided by Jonathan Auerbach from George Mason University so that the findings in this report represent the approximately 23,000 street vendors that operate in New York City.

23,000 doesn’t hold much of candle to the hundreds of thousands in Indian megacities, but it’s more than enough to say grace over, and it’s reasonable to assume this is likely something of an undercount as well.

The report details who they are and where they came from with 30% from Mexico, 24% Ecuador, 20% Senegal, and 7% Egypt.  96% of those surveyed are immigrants and, not surprisingly, for 96% of street vendors, this is their primary source of income.  Whether street vendors or gig workers in India and other countries, ACORN universally hears, both in direct conversations and more extensive surveys, that such employment is their real and full-time job.  The notion that these vendors might be single men grabbing an accessible entry level profession wasn’t borne out by the New York City survey either.  65% lived in households with one or more children.

In India, one of the tasks that came with winning more legal protection and assured livelihood for street vendors was a requirement to register, which is still a mountain we’re all climbing a decade after passage of the act.  In New York City a vendor is supposed to have a permit, but the survey found that 75% work without one compared to the 25% who do have one.  Differing from much of the world, the overwhelming majority of street vendors in New York are mobile food vendors (20,500) with an additional 2,400 are general merchandise vendor based on mathematical estimates made by researchers.  The numbers around the world, and certainly in India, would likely be skewed the other way with the vast majority selling a bit of everything and a smaller number of food vendors.  Our Delhi affiliate actually does food safety training and certification for food vendors in many cities in India.  Similar requirements don’t exist for general vendors.

Informal employment is increasingly as huge in the western world, as it is elsewhere.  I’m delighted to have a better answer to these frequent questions from our members, but frankly all of us need to get a better fix of the role that informal work has in our economy, and the kind of protections and policies that such workers need and deserve.