Labour market trends in OHS 1996, 1997 and 1998, based on the expanded definition of unemployment

The main difference between the official and the expanded definitions of unemployment is the requirement in the former of engaging in job seeking in the four weeks prior to the interview for the survey (see Note 1 for both definitions).

These definitions have an effect on the size of what is considered to be the labour market. Table B below compares overall labour market trends in 1996, 1997 and 1998, based on the expanded definition of unemployment.

When compared with Table A, Table B shows that the size of the economically active population increases when the expanded definition is used. The size of the not economically active population accordingly decreases.

• For example, Table A shows that in October 1996 the size of the economically active population (row c) was 11,5 million, when using the official definition of unemployment. But it increased to 13,9 million (row C) when using the expanded definition, as indicated in Table B.

• The number of people who were not economically active decreases in 1996 from 13,1 million (Table A), using the official unemployment definition to 10,8 million, using the expanded one (Table B).
• The number of unemployed in 1996 is measured at 2,2 million in 11,5 million economically active (19,3%) using the official definition (Table A) and at 4,6 million in 13,9 million economically active (33,0%) using the expanded definition (Table B).

NOTES

1. Official and expanded unemployment rates

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) uses the following definition of unemployment as its official definition. The unemployed are those people within the economically active population, who: (a) did not work during the seven days prior to the interview, (b) want to work and are available to start work within a week of the interview, and (c) have taken active steps to look for work or to start some form of self-employment in the four weeks prior to the interview. The expanded unemployment rate excludes criterion (c).

Among those who are included in the expanded but not the official definition of unemployment will be discouraged job seekers (those who said they were unemployed but had not taken active steps to find work in the four weeks prior to the interview).

Stats SA reports on the situation of the unemployed using both the official and the expanded definition. In the present economic climate, there is a proportion of discouraged work seekers who face constraints, for example high travel costs and lack of transport, when seeking work.

2. Sampling of the successive OHS surveys

Altogether, six October household surveys have been conducted. The first OHS was undertaken in October 1993, but this survey is not comparable with the other later surveys, since it excluded the former Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei (TBVC states).

• The 1994 OHS was the one to be conducted that covered the entire country, including the former TBVC states. Interviews were conducted with respondents in 30 000 households in 1 000 enumeration areas (EAs). Thirty households were visited in each EA.
• In 1995, the OHS was also conducted among 30 000 households. However, the sample was more widely dispersed throughout the country. Three thousand, rather than 1 000 EAs were sampled, and interviews were conducted in 10 households in each EA.
• In 1996, the survey was conducted in November, since enumeration for the 1996 population census took place in October. Due to time and financial constraints, 16 000 households were visited in 1 600 EAs (800 pairs of adjacent EAs).
• In 1997, the sample size was once again increased to 30 000 households, selected from 3 000 sampled EAs.
• In 1998, due to budget constraints, the sample size was reduced to 20 000 in 2 000 EAs.

This release of the 1998 OHS forms part of a series of releases of household survey information.

Statistics South Africa plans to do further comparisons of the data across these surveys in a variety of future publications. In its Statistical release P0317.10, it has already compared employment and unemployment situation in the country in 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997 using the October household surveys, weighted at the time to the results of the post-enumeration survey, since the census results were not yet available.

3. Sample design for the 1998 OHS

The OHSs of 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998 were independent cross-sectional surveys, and different samples were designed for each of them.

The database of EAs, as established during the demarcation phase of Census ’96, constituted the sampling frame for selecting EAs for the 1997 and 1998 OHSs. The sampling procedure in both years involved explicit stratification by province and transitional metropolitan and district councils. Independent samples of EAs were drawn for each stratum within each province. The smaller provinces were given a disproportionately larger number of EAs than the bigger provinces.

Altogether, 2 000 EAs were drawn in 1998, by means of probability proportional to size principles in each stratum. The measure of size was the number of households in each EA. Interviewing for the 1998 OHS took place in these 2 000 EAs, and systematic sampling was applied to select 10 households to visit in each EA.

This means that 2 000 EAs were identified as primary sampling units, and 20 000 households were visited as ultimate sampling units. 

4. Weighting the1998 OHS

The 1998 OHS, in common with 1997, was weighted to estimates of the population size based on the population census of October 1996, as adjusted by a post-enumeration survey (PES), using post-stratification by province, gender and five-year interval age groups. In 1998, relative scaling was also done, to cater for population group and urban/non-urban splits.

The 1996 OHS was also weighted to the PES-adjusted count of Census’ 96. However, because of the smaller sample size and the more clustered sample of households that was drawn, different weighting procedures were used, as discussed in the 1996 OHS statistical release.

Prior to 1996, OHS surveys were weighted to reflect estimates of population size using the 1991 population census. The data reported here for 1998 and those reported for 1997 and 1996 are therefore not presently directly comparable with the previously published OHS figures for 1994 and 1995. Statistics South Africa is in a process of re-weighting the earlier surveys to reflect estimates of the population size based on the 1996 population census. After this process is complete, comparisons between 1994, 1995, 1996 1997 and 1998 should be possible.

5. Symbols used in the tables that follow
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When a zero (0) is shown in a table, there were fewer than 500 respondents, after weighting, in this category. When a dash (-) is shown there were no respondents in the category.

When a single asterisk (*) is shown in the table, the sample size was too small to give reliable estimates.

6. Comparability of results with other Stats SA data sources

The Survey of total employment and earnings (STEE) collects information on formal employment in South Africa. The latest results of the STEE, i.e. for September 1999, were published in December, 1999 in statistical release P0271.These show a steady decline in formal sector employment, from 5,2 million in September 1996 to 4,8 million in September 1999.

Care should be taken when comparing the results of the STEE with results of the annual OHSs, since different target populations, survey designs and methodologies are used. The OHS collects information from households, whereas the STEE collects information from formal sector businesses, excluding the following:

• agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing,
• restaurants and other eating and drinking places, boarding houses, caravan parks, guest farms,
• water and air transport,
• financial institutions,
• real estate and business services,
• educational services,
• medical, dental and other health services,
• welfare organisations,
• religious organisations,
• recreational and cultural services,
• household services, and
• informal industries.

In the OHS, it is a household, rather than a business in a particular sector, which is sampled. In a probability sample such as the OHS, households containing people working in each of the above categories have the same chance of being selected in the proportion in which they work in a particular sector as those working in the other formal sectors that are covered in the STEE. The OHS, through its different methodology, thus covers all sectors.

7. Urbanisation

The urban population constituted 54,1% of the total population according to Census ’96. In the weighting matrix for the 1998 OHS, the proportionate distribution of the population by urban and non-urban areas that was used was based on the population census of 1996. The urban/non-urban proportion is one of the variables used to weight successive OHSs to the population distribution of Census’ 96 (the others in 1998 were age, gender and population group), thereby rendering them comparable in respect of other variables. It follows that urbanisation cannot be detected from successive OHSs, but will be measured by comparing Census ’96 with Census 2001.

8. The mining sector

The reader is reminded that the Stats SA releases of the findings of OHS 1996 and 1997 excluded those working in the mining sector. In some of the tables given in this statistical release, however, this sector is included, since it was possible, for the first time, to draw an adequate sample of mining hostels.

9. Confidence intervals

Stats SA has calculated 95% confidence limits for some key variables, in 1996, 1997 and 1998. These are available on request to users who require this information.

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

A household consists of a single person or a group of people who live together for at least four nights a week, who eat together and who share resources.

Population group describes the racial classification of a particular group of South African citizens. The previous government used this type of classification to divide the South African population into distinct groupings on which to base apartheid policies. For quite a different reason it remains important for Stats SA to continue to use this classification wherever possible. It clearly indicates the effects of discrimination of the past, and permits monitoring of policies to alleviate discrimination. Note that in the past, population group was based on a legal definition, but it is now based on self-perceptions and self-classification. An African/black person is someone who classifies him/herself as such. The same applies to a coloured, Indian/Asian or white person.

A hostel is a communal living quarter for workers, provided by a public organisation such as a local authority, or a private organisation, such as a mining company. These were residential dormitories established for migrant workers during the apartheid era, and they continue to house people working in certain industries, such as the mining industry.

Institutions are communal temporary, semi-permanent or permanent living arrangements for people in special circumstances, for example prisons, police cells, school boarding facilities, homes for the aged or the disabled, hotels and hospitals.

The working age population includes all those aged between 15 and 65 years.

The economically active population consists of both those who are employed and those who are unemployed.

The employed are those who performed work for pay, profit or family gain in the seven days prior to the household survey interview, or who were absent from work during these seven days, but they did have some form of paid work during this time.

The official unemployment rate: see Note 1.

The expanded unemployment rate: see Note 1.

The people who are out of the labour market or who are not economically active are those who are not available for work. This category includes full-time scholars and students, full-time homemakers, those who are retired, and those who are unable or unwilling to work.

The formal sector includes all businesses which are registered for tax purposes, and which have a VAT number.

The informal sector consists of those businesses that are unregistered and do not have a VAT number. They are generally small in nature, and are seldom run from business premises. Instead, they are run from homes, street pavements or other informal arrangements.

Primary industries include agriculture, forestry and fishing, and mining and quarrying.

Secondary industries include manufacturing, electricity and other utilities, and construction.

Tertiary industries include trade, transport, financial and business services, and social, personal and community services.

Type of employment refers to whether or not the person is self-employed, or works as an employee, or both, or else works as a domestic worker in a household.

Location refers to whether the person lives in an urban or non-urban area.

• An urban area is one that has been legally proclaimed as being urban. These include towns, cities and metropolitan areas.
• A semi-urban area is not part of a legally proclaimed urban area, but adjoins it. Informal settlements are examples of these types of areas. In this publication semi-urban areas have been included with non-urban areas.
• All other areas are classified as non-urban, including commercial farms, small settlements, rural villages and other areas which are further away from towns and cities.

Workers include the self-employed, employers and employees.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Stats SA publishes approximately 300 different releases per year. It is not economically viable to produce them in more than one of South Africa’s eleven official languages. Since the releases are used extensively, not only locally, but also by international economic and social-scientific communities, Stats SA releases are published in English only.

Stats SA has copyright on this publication. You are, however, free to use the information in it as you wish, provided that you acknowledge Stats SA as the source of the basic data wherever you process, apply, utilise, publish or distribute the data: and also that you specify that the relevant application and analyses (where applicable) result from your own processing of the data.

Stats SA products

A complete set of Stats SA publications is available at Stats SA library and the following libraries:

National Library of South Africa, Pretoria

Library of Parliament, Cape Town

National Library of South Africa, Cape Town division

Bloemfontein Public Library

Natal Society Library, Pietermaritzburg

Johannesburg Public Library

Stats SA also provides a subscription service.

Electronic services

A large range of data are available via on-line services, diskette and computer printouts. For more details about our electronic data services, contact (012) 310 8095.

You can visit us on the Internet at: http://www.statssa.gov.za

Enquiries

Telephone number: (012) 310 8095/390/351
(012) 310 8607/046/655 (for technical enquiries)
(012) 310-8161 (publications)
Fax number: (012) 310 8495/500
E-mail: info@statssa.pwv.gov.za
Postal address: Private Bag X44, Pretoria, 0001 

DATA AND METADATA SET

October household survey, 1998

The data and metadata set from the October household survey, 1998 is available on CD-ROM at the following prices: