Mbalo Brief – August 2014
August is Women’s Month and women and men across the country unite against different forms of oppression, perceptions against women and to highlight achievements attained since the dawn of democracy. After 20 years of democracy and freedom, women still endeavour to eradicate traditional practices such as forced marriages where a woman is forced to marry her deceased husband’s brother as read more »
Quarterly Labour Force Survey: Quarter 2 (April to June), 2014 Press Statement
29 July 2014 Employment increased by 39 000 between Q1: 2014 and Q2: 2014, while unemployment increased by 87 000 resulting in an increase of 126 000 persons in the labour force. Consequently, the unemployment rate increased by 0,3 of a percentage point to 25,5% in Q2: 2014. The expanded unemployment rate reached 35,6% in read more »
National and provincial labour market: Youth Q1: 2008 to Q1: 2014
The unemployment rate among youth increased from 32,7% to 36,1% between 2008 and 2014; in the post recessionary period, the unemployment rate has been consistently higher among youth than among adults by more than 20 percentage points. The report released by Statistics South Africa examines in detail various aspects of the situation faced by youth read more »
QUARTERLY LABOUR FORCE SURVEY: Quarter 1(January to March), 2014
Stats SA today released the Q1:2014 results which show a quarterly decline in employment by 122 000 due to a loss of 110 000 jobs in the informal sector. Formal sector employment was virtually unchanged at 10,8 million compared with the previous quarter, while both Private households and Agriculture shed jobs (14 000 and 5 000 respectively). The read more »
Education: A roadmap out of poverty?
Findings from the Poverty Trends in South Africa report released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Thursday showed a strong link between increased level of education and decreased levels of poverty. While the overall level of poverty has declined between 2006 and 2011, there are stark differences when one examines poverty status according to read more »
Stats SA revises labour market statistics
Statistical agencies across the world periodically revise published statistical series when new information becomes available. So too does Stats SA. In the past, labour market information has been revised following the release of the results of Census 1996, Census 2001 and the large-scale Community Survey of 2007. Similarly, the current revision has been undertaken to read more »
Job gains in quarter 4 of 2013 were in the informal sector and temporary in nature.
Based on revised estimates, in quarter 4 of 2013, employment levels rose to 15,2 million – surpassing the peak reached in quarter 4 of 2008 during the pre-recession period. However, quarterly job gains of 141 000 in quarter 4 of 2013 were largely due to an increase in informal sector employment of 123 000. In addition, most read more »
Millennium Development Goals report
FOREWORD Minister Trevor Manuel, the Minister in the Presidency: The National Planning Commission We are in the home stretch, 2015 is just around the corner and this Millennium Development Goals report, the fifth in a series of reports since the adoption of the MDG‟s in 2000, is critical in understanding and knowing whether we are read more »
Mbalo Brief – October 2013
“While many people look forward to a fulfilling old age, more than one in five adults aged 60 and over experience mental or neurological disorders, such as dementia and depression.” These were the words of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the occasion of the World Mental Health Day, 10 October 2013. Mental health conditions read more »
Mbalo Brief – September 2013
South Africa has recently been plagued by a series of strikes. As collective wage negotiations got underway, employers and employees came to a deadlock. Mining, car manufacturing and City Power workers were among some of the workers who downed their tools during this time. Although many would agree that this year’s ‘strike season’, as some call it, was not read more »