Research and Insight
Facts and figures
By Staff Writer
Stats South Africa’s first release of its Labour Market Dynamics report, provides a clear view into labour trends between 2003 and 2008.
Employment expanded by an average annual 3% over the period 2003 to 2008 - equivalent to an additional 1,9 million jobs over the five years to 2008. This was accompanied by a decline in the number of unemployed persons by an annual average 1,5% percent over the same period.
Employment growth slowed in the two years to 2008 by which time the downward trend in unemployment had been reversed.
Over the period 2003-2006, female unemployment rates were higher than male rates by an increasingly large margin. Although the gap narrowed in 2007 and 2008, the unemployment rate among women was still more than 30% higher than that of men in 2008. .
In 2008 the absorption rate was 52,4% for men compared to 37,5% for women.
41,8% of the white labour force had higher education compared with 22,9% of the Indian labour force and around 10 percent of the coloured and Black/African labour force.
Although younger people were in general better educated than older people, this has not always assisted their job prospects and in 2008, the unemployment rate among youth aged 15-24 years was still twice the national average.
Although the overall unemployment rate was virtually unchanged in 2008 (22,9%) compared with a year earlier (22,3%), among Black/Africans it rose from 25,8% in 2007 to 27% percent in 2008. Black/African women had the highest unemployment rate(30,9% in 2008) while white men had the lowest (3,5% in 2008).
Over the period 2003 to 2008, unemployment rates were lowest in the more urbanised provinces Western Cape and Gauteng and highest in Limpopo and Eastern Cape. This pattern reflected the evolution of absorption rates and labour force participation rates which were highest in the more urban provinces and lowest in provinces such as Limpopo and Eastern Cape.
The unemployment rate among graduates declined from 9,8% in 2003 to 7,7% in 2008, reflecting a decline among all population groups. In 2008 the unemployment rate among Black/African graduates was still more than six times that of white graduates suggesting that there is perhaps still a large mismatch between the education outcomes of the four population groups and the labour market opportunities available to each group
In 2008 the number of persons in long-term unemployment rose after four successive years of decline. As a result, the incidence of long-term unemployment increased among both men and women such that over 50% of unemployed men and over 60% of unemployed women were actively looking for a job for one year or longer in 2008.
One clear indication of the deteriorating labour market situation in 2008 was that the overall unemployment rate was virtually unchanged compared with a year earlier but the long-term unemployment rate increased from 11,6% in 2007 to 13,4% in 2008.
In 2008, 18,9% of working age individuals were underutilised in the South African labour market because they were either underemployed, or unemployed or discouraged.
Whereas one in every five working age women (20%) was underutilised - a smaller proportion of working age men (17,7%) fell into the category “underutilised labour”.
