Labour trends in South Africa
29 September 2004
A study by Statistics South Africa shows that the formal sector is the majority employer in South Africa - a trend which analysts say has been on the cards since 2000.
Stats SA's Labour Force Survey for March 2004 shows that, across all population groups, the majority of SA's workers were employed in the formal sector, with a relatively small proportion employed as domestic workers.
Overall, 8.8-million people are employed in SA's formal sector, about 2.2-million people in the informal sector, and 1-million in domestic work.
Analysts say that since 2000, the formal sector has been responsible for most of the jobs created in the country - and that employment in the informal sector has in fact been stagnant or declining.
This is in contrast to the 1990s, where the informal sector was South Africa's
primary job creator.
According to Stats SA's latest survey, the percentage of South Africans employed in the formal sector is lowest among black (64.6%) and coloured (85.6%) workers, and highest among Indian/Asian (93.8%) and white (94.4%) workers.
Similarly, the survey shows that informal sector employment is highest among the black population group (23.8%) and lowest among the Indian/Asian (5.8%) and white (5.3%) population groups.
The percentage of black people employed as domestic workers is 11.1% and of coloured workers 7%. This can be compared to only 0.1% of the Indian/Asian and white population groups.
The survey shows that the largest group of people employed in the formal sector work in the community, social and personal services industry (24.1%), whereas in the informal sector the largest group work in trade (39.6%).
Approximately 15.5% of people working in the informal sector are employed in
agriculture, making the agricultural industry the
second-largest industry in terms of informal sector employment.
In contrast, only 10.6% of those working in the formal sector are employed in agriculture, making this industry the fifth-largest in terms of formal sector employment.
According to Stats SA, most of the employed (about 2.7-million people) are working in elementary occupations (excluding domestic work), followed by craft and related trades workers (about 1.5-million people) and then service workers (about 1.4-million people).
The occupational group with the least number of workers is skilled agricultural and fishery workers (approximately 0.3-million people).
Skilled agricultural workers include skilled field crop and vegetable growers; gardeners, horticultural and nursery growers; dairy and livestock producers; poultry producers; and forestry workers and loggers. Unskilled farm labourers fall in the elementary occupations group.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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