This release also compares the available data in October 1998 on employment and unemployment among individuals, and aspects of living conditions among households, with data from the October 1996 and 1997 surveys.

The OHS is an annual survey, based on a probability sample of a large number of households (ranging from 16 000 in 1996 through 30 000 in 1997 to 20 000 in 1998, depending on the availability of funding). It covers a range of development indicators, including unemployment rates (official and expanded), according to standard definitions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO; for these definitions see Note 1 on page 12).

Due to funding limitations, the sample size was smaller for the 1998 OHS than it was in 1997 (20 000 as against 30 000 households with 10 households per enumerator area), but larger and less clustered than in 1996 (16 000 households per cluster of two adjacent enumerator areas). The sampling and weighting procedures are similar to those used in 1997. More details of the various OHS sample sizes, sampling and weighting procedures are given in Notes 2, 3 and 4 on pages 12 and 13.

The following section of the report, Key comparisons, compares aspects of the 1998 OHS with those of 1996 and 1997. It examines labour market issues, including employment and unemployment according to both the official and the expanded definitions. It also examines access to infrastructure and facilities in urban and non-urban environments. Other breakdowns for OHS 1998, and several other development-related variables, are covered in the later section of Tables.

The 1996, 1997 and 1998 OHS data sets, weighted to the 1996 population census (adjusted upwards to take population growth into account in 1997 and 1998) are available on CD-ROM from Stats SA’s users’ enquiries.

The October household survey data sets for 1994 and 1995 re-weighted to the 1996 population census will follow at a later stage.

Comparisons between four OHSs (1994 to 1997) in respect of employment and unemployment and the associated breakdowns have already been issued, both as a statistical release (PO317.10) and as an analytical report: Unemployment and employment in South Africa. These publications are available from users’ enquiries. Because the 1996 census results were not yet available to use for weighting when they were written, the data in these two publications had to be weighted according to the post-enumeration survey of the census. They differ slightly from those reported here.

Certain changes are difficult to detect over a one- or two- or even three-year time period, since they become measurable only in the longer term. For example patterns regarding changes in the level of education of the population aged 20 years or more are difficult to isolate in such a short time frame. On the other hand, some changes, such as access to employment and to formal housing, are easier to detect during a shorter time period.

This summary focuses on those possible short-term changes between 1996, 1997 and 1998. But such findings need to be viewed with caution, since they are based on three separate cross-sectional samples. Although Stats SA has calculated standard errors and confidence intervals for certain variables to take sampling errors into account, and to indicate which changes are statistically significant, a longer time series is required to examine these changes more thoroughly.

In the 1996 and 1997 OHS statistical releases, those working in the mining sector were excluded from the calculations of labour force statistics, since the sampling frame did not adequately cover mining hostels. But in 1998, for the first time, the sampling frame was able to include these hostels. In this publication, Stats SA has included those working in the mining sector in 1996 and 1997 wherever possible, even though they were excluded previously, to make the data comparable with 1998. The 1996 and 1997 mining employment figures were obtained from the formal establishment-based Survey of total employment and earnings (STEE). As a result, the labour market statistics given for OHS 1996 and 1997 in this release may differ in this respect from those given in the original 1996 and 1997 statistical releases.

Table A on page 5 compares overall labour market trends in 1996, 1997 and 1998, based on the official definition of unemployment (See Note 1 for this definition). It looks at the total number of people in the age category 15-65 years (those of working age), and the estimated change in the size of this population. It also indicates the number of people in this age category over the three-year period who were not economically active (for example, students, full-time homemakers and the disabled who were unable to work), and those who were (both the employed and the unemployed according to the official definition of unemployment).

Among the employed, it compares the actual number of people working in business establishments according to the Survey of total employment and earnings (STEE) of September 1996, 1997 and 1998, with the number employed in various other types of employment across the three OHSs. The STEE does not presently collect information on the following sectors:

1. agriculture, hunting forestry and fishing;
2. restaurants and other eating and drinking places;
3. boarding houses, caravan parks and guest farms;
4. water and air transport;
5. financial institutions other than banks and insurance companies;
6. real estate and business services;
7. private educational services;
8. medical, dental and other health services;
9. welfare and religious organisations; and
10. recreational and cultural services.

11. The table shows that:

• Overall, the number of jobs in the formal sector as measured by STEE had declined from 5,2 to 4,9 million between September 1996 and September 1998 (row a).
• At the same time, the total number of those employed, including those in jobs that are not covered in STEE, had stayed approximately stable at 9,3 to 9,4 million between 1996 and 1998.
• It may be that certain employment opportunities are increasing, particularly in the informal sector, which increased from 1,0 million to 1,3 million.
• At the same time, a larger proportion of people are entering the labour market, and looking for work leading to a rise in the economically active total from 11,5 to 12,6 million (row c).
• But work opportunities appear to be limited, leading to rising unemployment from 2,2 to 3,2 million.

When employment in the mining sector is included, the official unemployment rate was 19,3% in 1996, increasing to 21,0% in 1997 and 25,2% in 1998.