The group of people you describe is termed informal employment by economists. They are measured regularly in phone surveys by the Census Bureau. The informal employment is largest in California, employing 1.5 million people, or 10% of CA’s labor force! That is more than 4 states combined.
The informal sector includes self-employed people like realtors and mortgage officers, and illegal immigrants. They do not include illegal jobs such as drug dealing and prostitution.
It is accepted that the realtors and many contractors are included in this 1.5 million informals. This number will be reduced.
You’re probably right that the large influx of illegals from Mexico coincided with our spending boom in the past 5 years. They will return to
