State Of Manufacturing In South Africa

Haroon Bhorat and Chris Rooney ()
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Chris Rooney: University of Cape Town

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

Abstract: The level of unemployment, poverty and inequality in South Africa is high in relation to the rest of the world. To overcome these three challenges, more and better jobs need to be created. A key source for these types of jobs can be found in the labour intensive manufacturing sector. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the performance of the South African manufacturing sector. We find that compared to other sectors of the economy, the manufacturing sector has performed poorly, both in terms of GDP growth and job creation. While all manufacturing sub-sectors showed GDP growth, that growth was marginal. Furthermore, although some manufacturing sub-sectors showed job growth, the rate of job losses in other manufacturing sub-sectors was far greater, resulting in overall job losses. We argue that the poor performance of the manufacturing sector can be attributed to increased competition from south-east Asia, and South Africa’s skills shortage. This research was commissioned by the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services SETA (merSETA). The authors wish to acknowledge merSETA’s contribution as funder, to the research and work herein.

Keywords: Manufacturing; development; South Africa; jobs; skills shortage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L60 N67 O1 O14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2017-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-knm and nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in Working Paper Series by the Development Policy Research Unit, March 2017, pages 1-17

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