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Defining and measuring informal employment in South Africa: A review of recent approaches

Author

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  • Derek Yu

    (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch and University of the Western Cape)

Abstract

This paper reviews the Stats SA methodologies to measure informal employment before and after the introduction of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), as well as other recently proposed approaches (e.g., Devey, Skinner and Valodia, Heintz and Posel, etc.), so as to investigate the congruence, if any, between the various measures of the rate of informality. Furthermore, econometric techniques are used to investigate commonalities and differences in the way in which the different measures of informality are associated with demographic and employment characteristics. The results suggest that informal employment is much bigger if the post-2007 Stats SA methodology, which considers employment as informal regardless of whether the activities take place in the informal sector or not, is adopted.

Suggested Citation

  • Derek Yu, 2010. "Defining and measuring informal employment in South Africa: A review of recent approaches," Working Papers 09/2010, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers108
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    File URL: https://www.ekon.sun.ac.za/wpapers/2010/wp092010/wp-09-2010.pdf
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Tansel, Aysit & Kan, Elif Oznur, 2011. "Labor mobility across the formal/informal divide in Turkey: evidence from individual level data," MPRA Paper 35672, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Aysit Tansel & Elif Öznur Acar, 2017. "Labor mobility across the formal/informal divide in Turkey: Evidence from individual-level data," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 44(4), pages 617-635, September.
    3. Frederick C.v.N. Fourie, 2011. "The South African unemployment debate: three worlds, three discourses?," SALDRU Working Papers 63, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    South Africa; Household survey; Labour market trends; Informal employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General

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