Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/58810 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6116
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The global financial crisis deeply impacted the South African labour market resulting in the shedding of almost 1 million jobs over 2009 and 2010. Reflecting longer term structural problems, this employment loss translated into a much larger rise in the number of discouraged individuals rather than those defined as 'narrowly' unemployed. Drawing on estimates using the micro-data, this paper shows that this state of non-searching unemployment or discouragement has increased more during the recent crisis for uneducated African males. Moreover, individuals who have given up job search during the recession are statistically different than those who continue searching. At the same time, searching is a transitory state for some of the jobless with considerable movements between the two categories of unemployment. These findings from the first post-Apartheid recession underscore the importance in the South African context of analysing a broad measure of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers. In response to these labour market challenges, the government should further reduce barriers to job search through such measures as training for the low-skilled and transport subsidies, along with other interventions that boost demand and job creation in rural areas.
Subjects: 
global financial crisis
unemployment
discouraged workers
South Africa
JEL: 
G01
J21
J64
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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