Survey of Employers and Self-Employed 2023

South Africa, 2023

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Reference ID

zaf-statssa-sese-2023-v1

DOI

https://doi.org/10.25828/0nrs-fs10

Producer(s)

Statistics South Africa

Collections

South African Labour Force Survey Data

Metadata

Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON

Created on

Sep 01, 2026

Last modified

Sep 01, 2026

Page views

8381

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Identification

Survey ID number

zaf-statssa-sese-2023-v1

Title

Survey of Employers and Self-Employed 2023

Abbreviation or Acronym

SESE 2023

Country

Name	Country code
South Africa	zaf

Study type

Survey of Employers and Self-Employed

Other identifiers

Type	Identifier
doi	10.25828/0nrs-fs10

Abstract

The SESE survey aims to provide information about the characteristics of businesses in the informal sector in South Africa, and provides an understanding of their operation and access to information and services. The information is gathered in surveys with household respondents that identify as being self-employed in the QLFS for the third quarter of the corresponding year.
The main objectives of the SESE are:
- To determine the contribution made by businesses not registered for VAT towards economic growth.
- To collect reliable data about people running businesses not registered for VAT.
- To identify the non-income tax paying and income tax paying businesses within the non-VAT paying businesses.
- To produce comprehensive statistical information about informal sector businesses, at national and provincial levels.

Kind of Data

Sample survey data

Unit of Analysis

Individuals, households and establishments.

Version

Version Description

v1: Edited, anonymised data for public distribution

Version Date

2026-08-20

Version Notes

Version 1 of the data was downloaded from StatsSA's website on 2026-08-13. The current data has variable and value labels added by DataFirst.

Scope

Notes

2023 data collection for the QLFS occurred in September during the middle two weeks of the month throughout the quarter, while SESE data collection was undertaken in the last week of the month, also throughout the quarter.

Coverage

Geographic Coverage

The survey has national coverage.

Geographic Unit

The lowest level of geographic aggregation covered by the data is province and metropolitan municipality.

Universe

The survey covered non-VAT registered businesses in South Africa.

Geographic bounding box

West	East	South	North
14.062712	33.090851	-35.101934	-22.105999

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators

Name	Affiliation
Statistics South Africa	Government of South Africa

Study authorization

Authorization Date

1999

Agency

Agency name	Affiliation
Parliament of South Africa	Government of South Africa

Authorization Statement

Data collection by South African government departments is authorised by the Statistics Act of 1999 and the Statistics Amendment Act of 2024

Sampling

Sampling Procedure

Currently, there is no sampling frame on which to base weights and raising factors for unregistered businesses in South Africa. Therefore, SESE is based on a household survey, consisting of two stages. The first stage involved identifying individuals who are running businesses based on the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS). The second stage involved a follow-up, when the owners of these businesses were interviewed, to determine the nature of their businesses. For each SESE survey, the criterion for inclusion depends on whether or not the business is registered for Value Added Tax (VAT). Only persons who had businesses which were not registered for VAT were included. This methodology was used from 2009 to 2023.

Weighting

For information on weights refer to the release provided with the data.

Survey instrument

Questionnaires

The SESE questionnaire covered background data on the small business (from questions 4 to 16 of the questionnaire) , its site of operation (questions 17 to 25), its business management, operations and finances (questions 26 to 43). Data is also collected on business expenditure and turnover (questions 44 to 52), people employed and labour costs (questions 53 to 60), expenditure on fuels, materials and services (question 61), business capital (questions 62 to 67) and transport (questions 68 to 70).

Data collection

Dates of Data Collection

Start	End
2023-09	2023-12

Time Method

Cross-section [cross section]

Data Collectors

Name	Affiliation
Statistics South Africa	Government of South Africa

Data Collection Notes

A sample for the SESE 2023 was obtained from individuals interviewed in the Quarterly Labour Force survey (3rd quarter QLFS, July–September 2017). The screening process involved identifying those persons operating businesses not registered for VAT. The QLFS was conducted in the middle two weeks of the month throughout the quarter. SESE households were re-visited in the last week of a month, throughout the quarter.

Data appraisal

Data Appraisal

The 2001 and 2005 datasets only covered those aged 15-64 years, while in 2009, 2013, 2017, and 2023, all persons aged 15 years and above were included. Additionally, there are inconsistencies between 2023 and 2017 in the section of Q61, on monthly expenditure items. The medians in 2023 are significantly lower than reported in 2017. Some records carry a positive wage bill against zero workers. Unpaid worker totals do not add up.

access_policy

Access authority

Name	Affiliation	URL	Email
DataFirst	University of Cape Town		support@data1st.org

Access conditions

Creative Commons Attribution only CC-BY licence.

Citation requirements

Statistics South Africa. Survey of Employers and Self-Employed 2023 [dataset]. Version 1. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa [producer], 2026. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/0nrs-fs10

Contacts

Name	Affiliation	Email	URL
DataFirst Helpdesk	University of Cape Town	support@data1st.org

Metadata production

Producers

Name	Affiliation	Role
DataFirst	University of Cape Town	Metadata producer

Date of Metadata Production

2026-08-20

Metadata version

DDI Document version

Version 1

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