New evidence on subjective well-being and the definition of unemployment in South Africa

Abstract

There is little empirical work in South Africa using panel data to describe employment and earnings dynamics. This paper contributes by describing labour-market transitions in South Africa between 2008 and 2010 for individuals aged 20 to 55 across two waves of nationally representative panel data. We find that women had more mobility than men into and out of the labour market and employment. However, women were less mobile between kinds of employment and across occupations. Casual employment was very unstable, with very few individuals remaining in this state. In contrast, there was little mobility out of regular employment into other kinds of employment. Average real earnings changes were positive for movements into regular employment and negative for movements into self-employment or casual employment. Strong movement out of semi-skilled occupations was striking, especially for males. In multivariate models, being the mother of young children was important in leaving regular...