The Dominican informal sector grew by 41.5% between 2000 and 2012, more than double the growth achieved by the formal sector. During the same period the formal sector registered a growth rate of 19.8%, according to research by the National Business Council (CONEP). The study, “The Impact of the Informal Sector in the Dominican Economy”, found that while employment rates in the public sector grew 98.6% between 2010 and 2012, formal jobs in the private sector barely grew by 4.1%, during a period in which the Economically Active Populations increased by 32.5%. Between 2000 and 2012, the employees active in the public sector went from 271,000 to 506,000 (a growth rate of 86.5%) while the pensioners increased from 60,000 to 151,000 (a 153.8%). According to the research, in those 12 years, the informal sector reached 2.3 million jobs while the formal sector reached 1.7 million. The 2012 National Workforce Survey showed that 57.1% of the jobs in the country were informal, while 43% were formal. In this period 667,785 informal jobs were created. Because of this, the study points out that “the informal labor market has been of vital importance for job creation and supporting the country’s economic activity.”