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The Measurement Of Employment Status In South Africa Using Cohort Analysis, 1994‐20041

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  • Nicola Branson
  • Martin Wittenberg

Abstract

We analyse trends in employment, unemployment and labour force participation by simple graphical techniques, using all the October Household Surveys and the September Labour Force Surveys. We show that African male employment in 1995 seems high, when compared to all the other surveys. Furthermore much of the increase in African female labour force participation is concentrated in the period 1998 to 2000, which suggests that measurement and sampling changes may be partially responsible for the trend. We track cohorts of individuals over the eleven years for which we have data. We show that young people are leaving school earlier, while being better educated than their elders. They are not, however, being absorbed into employment at a faster rate. This has led to a spike in youth unemployment.

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  • Nicola Branson & Martin Wittenberg, 2007. "The Measurement Of Employment Status In South Africa Using Cohort Analysis, 1994‐20041," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 75(2), pages 313-326, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:75:y:2007:i:2:p:313-326
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1813-6982.2007.00113.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Morne Oosthuizen & Haroon Bhorat, 2005. "The Post-Apartheid South African Labour Market," Working Papers 05093, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    2. Geeta Kingdon & John Knight, 2007. "Unemployment in South Africa, 1995--2003: Causes, Problems and Policies," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 16(5), pages 813-848, November.
    3. Colette Muller, 2003. "Measuring South Africa’s Informal Sector: An Analysis of National Household Surveys," Working Papers 03071, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    4. Farah Pirouz, 2005. "Have Labour Market Outcomes Affected Household Structure in South Africa? A Descriptive Analysis of Households," Working Papers 05100, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    5. Christopher A. Pissarides, 2000. "Equilibrium Unemployment Theory, 2nd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262161877, April.
    6. Daniela Casale, 2004. "What has the Feminisation of the Labour Market ‘Bought’ Women in South Africa? Trends in Labour Force Participation, Employment and Earnings, 1995-2001," Working Papers 04084, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    7. Daniela Casale, 2004. "What has the Feminisation of the Labour Market ‘Bought’ Women in South Africa? Trends in Labour Force Participation, Employment and Earnings, 1995–2001," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 15(3-4), pages 251-275, July.
    8. Nicola Branson, 2006. "The South African Labour Market 1995-2004: A Cohort Analysis," SALDRU Working Papers 7, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
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    Cited by:

    1. Arden Finn & Murray Leibbrandt & Morné Oosthuizen, 2014. "Poverty, Inequality, and Prices in Post-Apartheid South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-127, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Nic Baigrie & Katherine Eyal, 2014. "An Evaluation of the Determinants and Implications of Panel Attrition in the National Income Dynamics Survey (2008-2010)," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 82(1), pages 39-65, March.
    3. Nicola Branson, 2009. "Re-weighting the OHS and LFS National household Survey Data to create a consistent series over time: A Cross Entropy Estimation Approach," SALDRU Working Papers 38, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    4. Dieter von Fintel, 2017. "Institutional wage-setting, labour demand and labour supply: Causal estimates from a South African pseudo-panel," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 1-16, January.
    5. Nicola Branson & Martin Wittenberg, 2014. "Reweighting South African National Household Survey Data to Create a Consistent Series Over Time: A Cross-Entropy Estimation Approach," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 82(1), pages 19-38, March.
    6. Erten, Bilge & Leight, Jessica & Tregenna, Fiona, 2019. "Trade liberalization and local labor market adjustment in South Africa," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 448-467.
    7. 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.
    8. Andrew Kerr & Martin Wittenberg, 2019. "Earnings and employment microdata in South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-47, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Finn, Arden & Leibbrandt, Murray & Oosthuizen, Morne, 2014. "Poverty, inequality, and prices in post-apartheid South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 127, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Reza C. Daniels, 2012. "A Framework for Investigating Micro Data Quality, with Application to South African Labour Market Household Surveys," SALDRU Working Papers 90, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    11. Petr Malecek, 2021. "Effects Of Demographic Structure In Growth Accounting And Labour Market Decompositions," International Journal of Economic Sciences, European Research Center, vol. 10(2), pages 104-114, December.

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