Panel A of Figure 5.13 addresses this question by showing that the majority of informal workers who transit to formal jobs moves into fixed-term employment in urban Colombia and urban China, while the opposite holds for South Africa and Hirkey. Low transition rates from informality to fixed-term contracts in Hirkey and South Africa can be, at least partly, explained by the relatively restrictive legislation on fixed-term employment in the former and the very light employment protection rules applying to permanent contracts in the latter. This evidence points to the potential existence of a vicious cycle, in countries like (urban) Colombia, where some workers may be stuck in a back-and-forth between informality, fixed-term formal jobs and joblessness. Such a possibility weakens the claim that informal employment typically serves as a stepping stone towards good careers.