‘Two Million Net New Jobs’: A Reconsideration of the Rise in Employment in South Africa, 1995-2003

Daniela Casale, Colette Muller and Dorrit Posel

Working Papers from University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit

Abstract: In this paper we investigate labour market trends in South Africa between October 1995 and March 2003. In particular, we evaluate the South African governments claim that over this period, the economy created two million net new jobs. Using the same household survey data as that used to generate official employment estimates, we also find an almost two million net increase in employment. However, we show that this increase is likely to have been inflated by changes in data capture and definitions of employment over the years, and that the real increase may be considerably less, with a lower bound of approximately 1.4 million jobs. We argue further that the rise in employment over the period must be evaluated in the context of a dramatically larger growth in labour supply and therefore rising rates of unemployment, declining real earnings, and an increase in the number of the working poor, particularly among Africans.

Keywords: South Africa: labour market trends; rising rates of unemployment; declining real earnings; working poor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2005-08
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Working Paper Series by the Development Policy Research Unit, August 2005, pages 1-24

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7366 First version, 2005 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: ‘TWO MILLION NET NEW JOBS': A RECONSIDERATION OF THE RISE IN EMPLOYMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1995–2003 (2004)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctw:wpaper:05097

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