“This paper’s chief objective is the analysis of some of the changes in the South African labour market in the post-apartheid era and the challenges the labour market presents in the successful attainment of shared growth. Section 2 looks at the labour force, quantifying employment, unemployment and thereby the labour force. The first part of the section places employment trends within the context of economic growth, rejecting the jobless growth characterisation of recent economic performance. The section then describes some of the main characteristics of the labour force and details changes in the labour force participation rates of various groups. In section 3, employment is analysed, with reference specifically to sector, occupation, skills and education, and location, while section 4 focuses on the
characteristics of the unemployed, as well as the households in which they find themselves. Finally, section 5 presents a multivariate analysis of labour force participation and employment, using several of the variables used in the descriptive analysis.”
