IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ctw/wpaper/06114.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Graduate Unemployment in the Face of Skills Shortages: A Labour Market Paradox

Author

Listed:
  • Kalie Pauw
  • Morne Oosthuizen
  • Carlene van der Westhuizen

    (Development Policy Research Unit,University of Cape Town)

Abstract

There is consensus among analysts that South Africa’s unemployment is structural in the sense that the unemployed generally possess lower skills than what is required in the marketplace. In the context of increasing demand for skilled workers due to technical progress and the need to become more competitive globally, graduate unemployment would be expected to fall. This paper investigates the nature of graduate unemployment in South Africa since 1995, finding that labour force and employment growth has been concentrated in higher educational categories. However, against expectations unemployment has risen amongst young and better educated people. The paper suggests that the education sector urgently requires continued emphasis and monitoring to ensure that learners are adequately prepared for entry into the labour force; that greater efforts be made to encourage learners to choose directions of study with superior employment prospects; and that investment in young people’s soft skills is required.

Suggested Citation

  • Kalie Pauw & Morne Oosthuizen & Carlene van der Westhuizen, 2006. "Graduate Unemployment in the Face of Skills Shortages: A Labour Market Paradox," Working Papers 06114, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    • Handle: RePEc:ctw:wpaper:06114
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7346
    File Function: First version, 2006
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Murray Leibbrandt & Haroon Bhorat, 1999. "Modelling Vulnerability and Low Earnings in the South African Labour Market," Working Papers 99032, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    2. Charlton Koen, 2003. "The Contribution of Technikons to Human Resources Development in South Africa," Working Papers 03080, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    3. H. Bhorat & J. Hodge, 1999. "Decomposing Shifts in Labour Demand in South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 67(3), pages 155-168, September.
    4. Rulof Burger & Ingrid Woolard, 2005. "The State of the Labour Market in South Africa after the First Decade of Democracy," SALDRU/CSSR Working Papers 133, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    5. Daniel K. Mengisteab & Johannes W. Fedderke, 2016. "Estimating South Africa’s output gap and potential growth rate," Working Papers 21, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Derek Yu, 2008. "The South African labour market: 1995 – 2006," Working Papers 05/2008, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    2. Hélène Maisonnave & Bernard Decaluwe & Margaret Chitiga, 2016. "Does South African Affirmative Action Policy Reduce Poverty? A CGE Analysis," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 8(3), pages 212-227, September.
    3. Precious Mncayi & Phindile Mdluli, 2019. "Why are they not looking for employment? A South African Youth Perspective," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 9912247, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    4. Alexandre Larouche & Dorothée Boccanfuso & Mircea Trandafir, 2011. "The impact of the PDEF on the labour market outcomes of «high-skilled» workers in Senegal," EcoMod2011 3572, EcoMod.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Haroon Bhorat & Karmen Naidoo & Morné Oosthuizen & Kavisha Pillay, 2015. "Demographic, employment, and wage trends in South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 141, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Haroon Bhorat & Karmen Naidoo & Morné Oosthuizen & Kavisha Pillay, 2015. "Demographic, employment, and wage trends in South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-141, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Rulof Burger & Servaas Berg & Dieter Fintel, 2015. "The Unintended Consequences of Education Policies on South African Participation and Unemployment," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 83(1), pages 74-100, March.
    4. K. Pauw & M. Oosthuizen & C. Van Der Westhuizen, 2008. "Graduate Unemployment In The Face Of Skills Shortages: A Labour Market Paradox1," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 76(1), pages 45-57, March.
    5. Johannes Fedderke, 2012. "The Cost of Rigidity: The Case of the South African Labor Market," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 54(4), pages 809-842, December.
    6. Haroon Bhorat, 2000. "Wage premia and wage differentials in the South African labour market," Working Papers 00043, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    7. Frederick C.v.N. Fourie, 2011. "The South African unemployment debate: three worlds, three discourses?," SALDRU Working Papers 63, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    8. Haroon Bhorat & Zaakhir Asmal & Kezia Lilenstein & Kirsten van der Zee, 2018. "SMMES in South Africa: Understanding the Constraints on Growth and Performance," Working Papers 201802, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    9. Cecil Mlatsheni & Murray Leibbrandt, 2001. "The role of education and fertility in the participation and employment of African women in South Africa," Working Papers 01054, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    10. Haroon Bhorat & Adaiah Lilenstein & Jabulile Monnakgotla & Amy Thornton, 2017. "The Socio-Economic Determinants of Crime in South Africa: An Empirical Assessment," Working Papers 201704, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    11. Kalie Pauw & Liberty Mncube, 2007. "The Impact of Growth and Redistribution on Poverty and Inequality in South Africa," Research Report 7, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    12. Derek Yu, 2013. "Youth unemployment in South Africa since 2000 revisited," Working Papers 04/2013, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    13. Bhorat, Haroon & Goga, Sumayya & Stanwix, Benjamin, 2014. "Skills-biased labour demand and the pursuit of inclusive growth in South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 130, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Vincent Dadam & Nicola Viegi, 2021. "Estimating a New Keynesian Wage Phillips Curve," Working Papers 202107, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    15. P.A. Black, 2002. "On The Case For “Black Economic Empowerment” In South Africa*," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 70(8), pages 1148-1162, December.
    16. P.D.F. Strydom, 2003. "Work And Employment In The Information Economy," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 71(1), pages 1-20, March.
    17. Haroon Bhorat & Arabo Ewinyu & Derek Yu, 2017. "The Seychelles Labor Market," Working Papers 201706, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    18. Murray Leibbrandt & James Levinsohn & Justin McCrary, 2005. "Incomes in South Africa Since the Fall of Apartheid," NBER Working Papers 11384, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Lumengo Bonga‐bonga, 2009. "The South African Aggregate Production Function: Estimation Of The Constant Elasticity Of Substitution Function," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 77(2), pages 332-349, June.
    20. Alberto Behar, 2005. "Does training benefit those who do not get any? Elasticities of complementarity and factor price in South Africa," Economics Series Working Papers 244, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    South Africa: graduate unemployment; skills shortages;

    JEL classification:

    • A1 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ctw:wpaper:06114. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Waseema Petersen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dpuctza.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.