Where to for the South African Labour Market? Some ‘Big Issues’
The labour market landscape has changed dramatically over the first decade of democratic governance in South Africa. Of course, the most obvious change is extremely high and rising rates of open unemployment. This was partly caused by restructuring and capital intensification in traditional resource-based industries, without a concomitant growth in manufacturing or services. Historically, South…
read more >>A Review of Labour Markets in South Africa: how Different is the South African Labour Market? International Perspectives and Parallels
Half a century of apartheid left a deep imprint on all aspects of the South African labour market. In many ways, this leaves the country as a ‘special case’ in the field of labour market analysis, with large gaps in human development, significant underutilisation of the labour force, and difficult tensions in industrial relations. But…
read more >>Low Wage Work in South Africa
Altman examines the emerging character of the ‘working poor’ in South Africa and the implications for economic policy. The theme is particularly relevant for economies whose cost structures are not well aligned with promoting meaningful economic participation. The paper starts by setting the unemployment scene, showing that low-paid work is a greater burden if the…
read more >>The Decent Work Agenda in Southern Africa: Evidence and Challenges
The decent work agenda initiated by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1999 seeks to promote employment and productive work, workers’ rights, social protection and social dialogue. Ncube examines the experiences of nine southern African countries in terms of the decent work agenda, focusing on employment and productive work. The paper notes a lack of…
read more >>A comparison of the old and new weights of the LFS data: 2000-2005
This report compares the population weights from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) data-sets as originally released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) with the reweighted data-sets released in September 2005. Some conclusions are also drawn about the applicability of the data for the generation of nuanced statistics.
read more >>Employment Creation Through the Provision of Social Development Services: Exploring the Options
The high unemployment rate in South Africa is a central concern of policy makers. Because there are only a few substantial labour intensive industries, led by the private sector, it has become essential to explore other less mainstream avenues for employment creation. The role of public works programmes has historically focused on the infrastructure sector,…
read more >>The Socio-Economic Impact of the Global Downturn on South Africa: Responses and Policy Implications
By the end of 2008, the South African economy had begun to experience the impact of the world recession which had arisen out of the international financial crisis. At that time, the scope and scale of the impacts were uncertain, making it difficult to mount official responses. This study on SA by Ngandu et al…
read more >>Identifying employment creating sectors in South Africa
Will Government’s current policy priorities and plans in relation to the formal services sector guide the economy towards its 2014 target of halving unemployment? Net new employment has mainly been found in formal and non-formal services. Given the structure of the SA economy, it is most probable that future employment will also be sourced from…
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…
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