In this paper, we revisit ‘what and who’ is middle class in South Africa using data collected in the 2008 National Income Dynamics Study. First, we consider how to identify the middle class based on two broad definitions adopted in the international economics literature: a middle class defined by the middle share of the national income distribution; and a middle cl...

Two very different pictures emerge when one compares income changes of the relatively affluent ?middle class' with those of households in the literal middle of the income spectrum. In the affluent middle there has been significant racial transformation and growth of the ?black middle class'. However, households in the actual middle of the income spectrum have exper...

This article explores the limitations of using data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) to estimate robust sub-national labour market indicators in South Africa. The precision of labour market indices in the QLFS is very sensitive to which geographic scale is examined - national, provincial or metro - and in each instance the size of the population of the...