Informal sector

In LICs large numbers of people are migrating from rural to urban areas. These people are seeking work and regular wage, and believe the cities and towns are better for this. Whilst its true that there are more job opportunities and higher wages, there often more peopler working moving into the area all the time, meaning in order to get a job they have to work for less, The wages are so low that they are not enough for the worker and his family to live on, and so they find ways of making a living outside the normal job market.

This informal activity might involve selling matches or shoelaces on the street, ice-cream vending, shoe shining, rubbish collecting or other types of waste for recycling. Some are so desperate they resort to begging, petty crime or prostitution. Informal economic activities fall mainly within the tertiary sector.

A  group of informal activities falls under the heading of paratransit. These are because inadequate official transport in LIC towns and cities. They usually take the f

orm of minibuses, hand drawn and motored rickshaws, scooters and pedicabs. Whilst these do well due to meeting the demands in price and availability they also lead to congestion and overloaded roads.

The growth and location of terry and quaternary activities

• It is able to afford more and better social services, such as schools, medical centres, hospitals and libraries.
• People earn more money and have money to spend in the shops on 'basic' things, such as food and clothing.
• After they have brought the 'basic's, people have more money left (disposable income) to spend on 'Luxuries', such as entertainment, holidays, eating out and recreation.
• Peoples tastes change and this impacts on the terry sector. For example cinemas have closed because many people now prefer to watch DVDs at home.
• New technology creates and makes possible new services. Think of all those new services connected with ICT - Broadband service providers, website designers, mobile phone networks, software programmers and the servicing of PC's and laptops.