LA ESQUINA (THE CORNER): DAY LABORERS ON THE MARGINS OF NEW YORK’S FORMAL ECONOMY Nik Theodore, Abel Valenzuela Jr., and Edwin Meléndez This article presents the findings of a survey of day laborers who gather at informal hiring sites in the New York metropolitan area. Day laborers are employed by construction contractors, landscaping companies, homeowners, and small businesses to undertake manual labor jobs for low pay. The work is precarious and steady employment is rare. In addition, the day labor market is characterized by routine violations of labor and employment laws, and workers are often exposed to unsafe working conditions. These conditions prevail, in part, because day laborers largely are disconnected from workers rights’ advocacy efforts. However, the creation of worker centers aims to remedy this situation. Several community organizations in the region are now actively contesting abuses in the day labor market and increasing both accountability in and transpar- ency of the hiring process. Each morning at approximately 6:00 a.m., dozens of day laborers begin to assemble along Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside, Queens, New York. 1 There they wait, sometimes for hours, in the hope that a construction contractor, home- owner, landscaping company, or small business will hire them for the day. But few will actually be hired that morning. The fortunate ones will be employed as construction helpers, movers, demolition haulers, painters, cleaners, gardeners, and to fill other manual-labor jobs. The others will continue their search until mid-afternoon, after which they will leave the hiring site until the following morning when they once again will attempt to secure work. Roosevelt Avenue in Queens is one of more than fifty informal hiring sites in the New York metropolitan area where day laborers assemble to search for work. These hiring sites are found in all five boroughs of New York City, as well as in many suburban neighborhoods and adjacent counties. And although infor- mal hiring sites of this sort have existed in New York for decades (see Leonardo and O’Shea 1997; Martinez 1976), the recent increase in the number of day laborers gathering on city streets and in public spaces has sparked intense controversy in some communities. Residents and merchants have protested the presence of workers gathering in neighborhoods throughout the region, and in some areas public officials have moved to ban the solicitation of employment or WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society · 1089-7011 · Volume 9 · December 2006 · pp. 407–423 © The Author(s) Journal compilation © Immanuel Ness and Blackwell Publishing, Inc.