Thoughts on Employment Typologies
Mineral (and other natural resource) exports promote development and employment, as long as the rents are used wisely and undesirable macroeconomic effects are avoided. However, many countries have failed to achieve this. Mineral rents are often wasted, either through corruption and theft or through inefficiencies and rent-seeking by private and public agents. Too often the…
read more >>Mining Employment Scenarios for South Africa to 2024
Baartjes et al investigate the employment potential of the South African mining industry. They assess mining investment on a commodity-specific basis, the drivers of mining employment, how these relate to investment, and whether significant technological changes (greater mechanisation) would be widely adopted. This is followed by a discussion of employment, incomes and occupational skills levels,…
read more >>2030 Horizon Scanning in South Africa: Domestic Economy
Unemployment and poverty are among the central uncertainties facing the South African economy. Creating market-based jobs is the most sustainable way of addressing these problems. The Human Sciences Research Council generated scenarios for job creation to 2024, based on GDP growth rates of 3%, 4.5% and 6%. It projects that if the economy grew by…
read more >>Setting Targets for Unemployment Reduction and Employment Creation
“Altman translates ‘halving unemployment’ into concrete targets for unemployment and employment. Reducing unemployment and expanding employment do not necessarily involve the same policy complements. Reducing unemployment depends not only on job creation, but also on the pace of labour force growth. Therefore targets are needed for growing employment and reducing unemployment. This discussion paper outlines…
read more >>Overview of the Economy and Economic Policy
Lowitt and Altman provide a high-level review of the economy’s performance and key policy development in the period 2001–2003. The focus is on economic performance and policy in relation to the demand for labour, and hence human resource development. From a performance perspective, the chapter shows that economic growth was resilient despite a global slowdown and…
read more >>An overview of Industrial Policy and its Implications for HRD
Altman and Mayer analyse the impact of South Africa’s industrial policy on the demand for labour. They show that industrial development has historically been driven by minerals extraction and import substitution, overlain by apartheid policies that excluded the majority of the population from the economy. This entrenched a growth path characterised by capital-intensive production processes,…
read more >>Reviewing the Question: Budget 2008
The 2008 budget says that ‘reducing joblessness remains South Africa’s most critical challenge’. There are many elements in the budget that will support growth and employment, but it is not so easy to see how it comes together. The budget is one of the government’s most powerful instruments, and an important expression of its priorities….
read more >>The State of Employment and Unemployment
Altman outlines trends in employment, underemployment and unemployment in South Africa, and explains possible causes and policy implications. Net employment in South Africa was stagnant or falling since the early 1980s, mainly because of factors related to the Apartheid government’s policies of ‘Separate Development’. A large stock of unemployed built up over many years, and…
read more >>Quantifying the Outsourcing of Jobs from Manufacturing to Services
There has been debate internationally and in South Africa about the extent to which a relative decline in manufacturing employment and rise in services employment can be accounted for by intersectoral outsourcing of jobs in the domestic economy. This article develops a new methodology for testing for and quantifying outsourcing at an economy-wide level. This…
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