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Labour Demand Trends and the Determinants of Unemployment in South Africa. 2010 CCMA COMMISSIONERS INDABA “Against all Odds” Ritz Hotel 2 – 4 December 2010. Understanding the post-apartheid Labour Market: Key Messages.
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Labour Demand Trends and the Determinants of Unemployment in South Africa 2010 CCMA COMMISSIONERS INDABA “Against all Odds” Ritz Hotel 2 – 4 December 2010
Understanding the post-apartheid Labour Market: Key Messages • The key drivers of employment trends since 1995 in the South African labour market • Assessing Sectoral and Skills Trends in Employment • Have the institutions of human capital changed labour market outcomes? • Do institutions and regulations matter?
Six Key Labour Market Challenges • Race, Gender and Age continue to influence access to employment and earnings • Employment Generation of the type since 1994 sectorally uneven • The Skills Mismatch between Labour Demand and Supply Continues Unabated • The Institutional and Regulatory Environment Remains Critical • The Spatial Dimension to Employment Creation is Critical • The Quality of Higher Education Remains a Significant Constraint
Challenge 1: Race, Gender and Age continue to dominate labour market outcomes:Pr (Employment) Results 1995,2001, 2009
Challenge 1: Race, Gender and Age continue to dominate labour market outcomes:Earnings Function Estimates 1995, 2001, 2007
Challenge 2: Employment Generation of the type since 1994,sectorally unevenEmployment Growth by Sector, 1994-2009 (‘000s)
Challenge 2: Employment Generation of the type since 1994,sectorally uneven Financial & Business Services Revisited “labour recruitment and provision of staff; activities of employment agencies and recruiting organisations; hiring out of workers (labour broking activities); Investigation and security activities; Outline
Challenge 2: Employment Generation of the type since 1994,sectorally unevenWholesale & Retail Trade Revisited….. Outline
Challenge 3: The Skills Mismatch between Labour Demand and Supply Continues Unabated :Aggregate Employment, by Education Level (% Change)
Challenge 3: The Skills Mismatch between Labour Demand and Supply Continues Unabated Skilled-Unskilled Relative Wages and Employment, 2001-2007
Challenge 4: The Institutional and Regulatory Environment Remains Critical: Union Wage Gap Estimates Across the Earnings Distribution, 2001 and 2007
Challenge 4: The Institutional and Regulatory Environment Remains Critical: Employment Rigidity: Cross Country Percentile Distribution and South Africa, 2010
Challenge 5: The Spatial Dimension to Employment Creation is CriticalMean Transport Expenditure % of Household Expenditure, By Mode of Transport
Challenge 6: The Quality of Higher Education Remains a Significant Constraint : Probability of finding employment: Results from a Sample of HEI Attendees Notes: 1. *Significant at the 1% level. **Significant at the 5% level. ***Significant at the 10% level. 2. Provincial controls were included but are not shown in the table.
Recommendations: Four Microeconomic Policy Options • Three New Options for Growing the Informal Sector • Public Sector Procurement • Short-Term Insurance • FDIs and the Informal Sector Loan Book • Public and Private Employment Services: Reducing Information Asymmetries in the Labour Market • New Measures to Support the Unemployed • Conditional Cash Transfers and the Training Layoff Scheme • A Transport Voucher Scheme to reduce transaction costs of spatial disparities • A wage subsidy cum employment generation for young, African female workers • Labour Regulation at the Margin • Fix the Institutions of the Labour Market (LCs; LACs) • Probation and Pre-Dismissal Procedures of the LRA
Conclusions • Are we Going through a new policy revolution? • Training Layoffs to stay? • Skills Under a New Regime • DoL’s Renewed Focus • Old Macroeconomic Debates are back in the arena (Inflation Targeting, Exchange Rate, Fiscal Policy and Pump-priming…….) • A New (Old-Style) Industrial Policy? • Trying some new ideas? • The insertion of the informal economy into all facets of industrial policy • A re-fashioned UI Scheme? • Political Economy Issues and revisiting the social compact? • Lest we Forget: • Understating the relevance of Financial & Business services in employment and output growth? • Growth Path and Labour market Outcomes are inextricably linked