PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

This article examines how informal workers are transforming their assets (social, human, financial, physical, and natural) into their livelihoods. This phenomenology study in Lao PDR is increasingly informality of household employment in the garment sector. Using a qualitative method, data were collected through in-depth interviews of 15 home-based garment worker representatives of three groups, including kinship workers, local workers, and post-industrial workers. Content analysis was performed using the ATLAS.ti program for categorization, summarization, and synthesis. The study found that social, human, and financial assets were significant of informal workers transformed into their livelihoods. It is, therefore, considered the capability workers transformed the asset process in accumulation into their meaningful livelihoods. The results suggest that employability can be further enhanced via social, human, financial, and support the physical and natural assets are discussed.