Abstract: This paper seeks to investigate some of the changes that have occurred within the South African labour market in the post-apartheid era between 1995 and 2004 and some of the challenges the labour market presents in the attainment of shared growth, updating previous work by Bhorat and Oosthuizen (2004). The two main sources of data are the October Household Survey of 1995 and the Labour Force Survey of September 2004. The paper has found that while the unemployment rate has risen over the period, total employment has increased, bringing into question the notion of jobless growth. Unemployment, however, continues to be concentrated in specific demographically and geographically defined groups, most notably rural dwellers, Africans, females, the poorly educated and the young and, for many, represents a long-term problem. Disturbingly, unemployment has continued to grow rapidly amongst relatively educated members of the labour force, despite the skills shortage faced by the country. An individual’s probability of being employed is found to depend on his or her race, gender, age, location and level of education. However, it appears that gender plays less of a role in determining the probability of employment in 2004 than in 1995, although this is not true of race.
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit in its series Working Papers with number
9618.
Length: 68 pages Date of creation: Feb 2006 Date of revision: Publication status: Published in Working Paper Series by the Development Policy Research Unit, February 2006, pages 1-68 Handle: RePEc:ctw:wpaper:9618
Find related papers by JEL classification: A1 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics
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