Documenting the Informalisation of Work in South Africa: Evidence from National Household Surveys, 1997–2001

Using data from selected national household surveys we demonstrate that most of the employment growth in South Africa since the late 1990s is the result of more individuals being employed informally. We also show that the informalisation of employment in South Africa has resulted in a decline in both nominal and real mean earnings of individuals who are informally employed, possibly due to occupational crowding. Finally, we explore the informalisation and casualisation of the labour market more broadly by examining the conditions of employment of all workers in the South African labour market. Our findings suggest that while the majority of workers involved in ‘informal’ employment experience poor employment conditions, there is also a significant proportion of ‘formal’ workers employed under conditions usually associated with informality.