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Labor Force Participation, Gender and Work in South Africa: What Can Time Use Data Reveal?

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  • Maria S. Floro
  • Hitomi Komatsu

Abstract

The utilization of time use data for exploring employment issues has received little attention in economic analysis. Using data from the 2000 South African national time use survey we argue that a gender-aware understanding of how men and women organize their daily life can help identify labor market and subsistence work that are missed in labor force surveys, thus complementing the information they provide. Further, information on the time spent in jobrelated search and household work provide insights on the interconnectedness of gender inequalities in the labor market and within the household. Our analysis of the time use patterns of 10,465 working age women and men, shows that a non-trivial proportion of men and women classified as either "not in the labor force" or "unemployed" actually engaged in subsistence, temporary and casual forms of employment. Secondly, we find that regardless of their labor force status, women's and men's hours of unpaid work donot vary greatly. These affect not only employment options of women but also their ability to look for work. Thirdly, time use data helps identify the salient characteristics of these individuals and the type of occupations they are engaged in.

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  • Maria S. Floro & Hitomi Komatsu, 2011. "Labor Force Participation, Gender and Work in South Africa: What Can Time Use Data Reveal?," Working Papers 2011-02, American University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:amu:wpaper:2011-02
    DOI: 10.17606/f6jw-0q36
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    Cited by:

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    2. Chakraborty, Lekha, 2022. "Covid19 and Unpaid Care Economy: Evidence on Fiscal Policy and Time Allocation in India," Working Papers 22/372, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    3. Chakraborty, Lekha S, 2022. "Covid19 and Fiscal Policy for Unpaid Care Economy," MPRA Paper 111925, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Meurs, Mieke & Slavchevska, Vanya, 2014. "Doing it all: Women’s employment and reproductive work in Tajikistan," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 786-803.
    5. Hasanbasri,Ardina Roosiany & Kilic,Talip & Koolwal,Gayatri B. & Moylan,Heather G., 2021. "Individual Wealth and Time Use : Evidence from Cambodia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9765, The World Bank.
    6. Sara Stevano & Suneetha Kadiyala & Deborah Johnston & Hazel Malapit & Elizabeth Hull & Sofia Kalamatianou, 2019. "Time-Use Analytics: An Improved Way of Understanding Gendered Agriculture-Nutrition Pathways," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 1-22, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    time allocation; gender; labor force participation; South Africa JEL Codes: E24; J22;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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