In the Penza region became 45 thousand more informally employed

In the Penza region, the number of informal workers has increased significantly. In the second quarter of 2026, 172.2 thousand such residents were counted - 45.6 thousand more than a year earlier. Over the year, the indicator increased by 36%, which was one of the most significant increases among the regions of Russia.

According to the FinExpertiza study based on Rosstat statistics, the share of informally employed in the Penza region was 26.9% of the total number of workers. That is, about one in four employees in the region belongs to the informal sector.

At the same time, in the Volga Federal District, the situation as a whole has changed in the other direction. The number of informally employed in the PFD for the year decreased by 3.9% and amounted to 2.82 million people. The share of such workers in the district reached 19.7%.

Against the background of neighboring regions, the dynamics of the Penza region looks especially noticeable. In the Saratov region, the number of informal workers increased by 4.2%, to 306.6 thousand people, and their share amounted to 24.8%. In Mordovia, the figure increased by 8.5% to 84.4 thousand, while the informal sector covers 21.6% of workers.

In the Orenburg region, the number of such workers increased by 6.3%, to 150.8 thousand people, and in Nizhny Novgorod - only by 0.9%, to 312 thousand. In Udmurtia, the indicator has practically not changed, decreasing by 0.5%. At the same time, in the Ulyanovsk region, the number of informal workers decreased by 13.9%, and in the Samara region by 31.8%.

In Chuvashia, on the contrary, an increase was also recorded – by 24.4%, to 145.5 thousand people. However, even there, the pace was lower than in the Penza region.

At the same time, informal employment itself does not mean that a person necessarily works in violation of the law or hides income from the state. In this category, Rosstat includes, in particular, employed individuals, self-employed, individual entrepreneurs and their employees, as well as employees of enterprises and organizations without the status of a legal entity. Informally employed persons include, for example, nannies, tutors, taxi drivers, builders, cleaners and other professionals working outside legal entities.

Informal work can be both permanent and temporary, and a person can simultaneously have formal employment in the corporate sector. Therefore, the growth of the indicator indicates primarily an increase in the number of people employed outside enterprises with the status of a legal entity, and not directly on the scale of the shadow economy.

In general, in Russia in the second quarter of 2026, 15.24 million people worked in the informal sector - 20.4% of the total number of employees. This is the highest figure for the second quarter in seven years. At the same time, the annual growth in the country was much less than Penza – only 0.7%.

The Penza region is distinguished not only by its high share of informal employment, but also by its sharp annual growth. For comparison, the average share of such workers in the Volga Federal District is 19.7%, while in Penza it is 26.9%.