Home / Data Portal / ZAF-DF-PALMS-1993-2025-V4
central

Post Apartheid Labour Market Series 1993-2025

South Africa, 1993 - 2025
Get Microdata
Reference ID
zaf-df-palms-1993-2025-v4
Producer(s)
Andrew Kerr, David Lam, Martin Wittenberg
Metadata
Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON
Created on
Sep 05, 2013
Last modified
Nov 24, 2025
Page views
159643
Downloads
24121

Data file: palmsv4

Cases: 7447560
Variables: 120

Variables

uqnr
household id variable, as in original data
personnr
person number
year
survey year
wave
survey wave, pslsd 1993=0, ohs 1994=1, qlfs dec 2015=54
ea
primary sampling unit number
stratum
stratum var to be used for svyset in stata- group of stratum and wave
province
province
pweight
original stats sa/pslsd person weight
ceweight1
datafirst cross entropy weight: ssa 2024 mype + assa
hweight
stats sa household weight
urbrur
area type, waves 0-15 (lfs 2004:1)
popgroup
population group
gender
gender (1=male 2=female)
age
age
marstat
marital status (consistent coding for all waves)
yrseduc
years of education, derived variable
educhigh0
highest education level, ohss only
educhigh1
highest level of education, lfs only
educhigh2
highest level of education (waves 04:2 to 2012:2)
educhigh3
highest level of education (waves 2012:3 to 2016:2)
educhigh4
highest level of education (waves 2016:3 to most recent qlfs)
educ_insti_lfs
educational institution, lfs only
empstat1
employment status, official
empstat2
employment status, expanded
employer
who does ... work for in main job (lfs only)
employer1
who does individual work for? (pslsd+ohs only)
employer2
employer (qlfs)
numworkers
number of regular workers at job, lfs
numworkers2
number of employees at place of work (qlfs)
jobstartyear
year started working for employer, ohs 95 onwards
jobstartmonth
month started working for employer, ohs 95 onwards
writtencontract
=1 if employee has written contract, lfs+qlfs
selfformalreg
individual considers the business they operate formal (ohs only)
selfvatreg
business operated by the individual is registered for vat (ohs only)
selfpaidemp
number of paid employees in own enterprise (ohs only)
selfunpaidemp
number of unpaid employees in own enterprise (ohs only)
wageformalreg
employee considers the enterprise they work for formal (ohs only)
formalreg0
lfs variable for wage/self/domestic: business is formal, registered
formalreg1
is the business formal, informal or private hh? 2008:1 until 2009:2
informal_emp_derived
derived (by stats sa) variable : indiv is in informal employment (qlfs 2009:3 on
informal_sector_derived
derived (by stats sa) variable : is job/business in formal sector, informal sect
regisvat
business registered for vat, all in lfs, only self-emp in qlfs
jobindcode
industry of employment, short code
industry
3 digit industry sic code, ohs 99+lfs
industry2
3 digit industry sic code ohs96-98 +qlfs
indust2digit
2 digit industry, ohs 94+95
jobocccode
occupation of main job, short code
occupation
4 digit occ code ohs 96-lfs 2002:1
occupation1
3 digit occupation code, ohs 94+95
occupation2
4 digit occ code lfs 2002:2 onwards
jobunion
member of trade union, pslsd, ohs+lfs+qlfs 2012 onwards only
publicemp
dummy: employed by govt/public enterprise, pslsd,lfs+qlfs only
businesstype1
type of business where person works (waves 00:1 to 01:1)
businesstype2
type of business where person works (waves 01:2 to 07:2)
businesstype3
type of business where person works (qlfs)
hrslstwk
hours worked in total in last 7 days
jobcontract2
contract is written or verbal?
uif
does employer deducted unemployment insurance fund contributions?
jobsat
satisfied with current job?
jobpermanent
job is permanent or limited duration (lfs only)
supoddjobs
supported by odd jobs for last 7 days? (lfs+qlfs)
suphhpersons
supported by persons in the household? (lfs+qlfs)
supothpersons
supported by persons not in the household? (lfs+qlfs)
supcharity
supported by charity, church, welfare? (lfs+qlfs)
supuif
supported by unemployment insurance fund (uif)? (lfs+qlfs)
supsavings
supported by savings or money previously earned? (lfs+qlfs)
suppension
supported by old age or disability pension? (lfs+qlfs)
supother
other sources of support, e.g. bursary, study loan? (lfs+qlfs)
hhdisablegrant
household member receives a disability grant
searchlength
period trying to find work or start a business (consistent coding for all waves)
everworked
ever worked before? (lfs+qlfs)
whenlastjob
time since you last worked (lfs)
indusprev_lfs
industry of previous job, 3 digit code (lfs)
indprev_qlfs
previous industry in qlfs, 3 digit code
previndcode
industry of previous job, 1 digit code (lfs and qlfs)
jobpermanent2
job is permanent or limited duration (qlfs only)
reasonstopwork
main reason you stopped work
searchlengthqlfs
how long have you been searching? (qlfs)
whenlastjob_qlfs
time since you last worked (qlfs)
supothgrant
supported by other grant? (qlfs only)
supcsg
supported by child support grant? (qlfs only)
registax
business is registered for income tax (lfs and qlfs)
hoursmonday
hours worked on monday (qlfs)
hourstuesday
hours worked on tuesday (qlfs)
hourswednesday
hours worked on wednesday (qlfs)
hoursthursday
hours worked on thursday (qlfs)
hoursfriday
hours worked on friday (qlfs)
hourssaturday
hours worked on saturday (qlfs)
hourssunday
hours worked on sunday (qlfs)
prevocccode
occupation of previous job, 1 digit code (lfs and qlfs)
educ_insti_qlfs
educational institution, qlfs 2012:3 onwards only
urbrur4
type of area, qlfs 2017:3 onwards
publicemp2
public employment dummy that includes ohs, as well as pslsd,lfs+qlfs
earnings
consistent monthly earnings (rand amt) variable for palmsv2+
realearnings
consistent real monthly earnings (rand amt) variable for palmsv2+
outlier
outlier flag based on regression+showing a studentised residual >=5
employerall
wage worker or self-employed - all waves
bracketweight
weight corrects for bracket earnings resp, using statssa mype+ back projections
dc
district council/municipality
enrollment3
enrollment status: pslsd, ohs and lfs only
dwelltype
type of dwelling of household
watersource
household's source of water
toiletmaintype
household's main toilet
hhpension
household member receives an old age pension
hhchildsuppgrant
household member receives a child support grant
hhcaredependgrant
household member receives a care dependency grant
hhfostercaregrant
household member receives a foster care grant
incpension
indiv income past year from state old age pension
incdisabgrnt
indiv income past year from disability grant
inctstmaint
indiv income past year from state maintenance grant or child support grant
incdepgrnt
indiv income past year from care dependency (single care) grant
incfostcrgrnt
indiv income past year from foster care grant
enrolledqlfs
enrolled in educational institution? qlfs 2012:3 onwards only
occupation_prev
occupation of previous job, 4 digit code, lfs 2000:1 to 2002:1
occupation_prev2
occupation of previous job, 4 digit code, lfs 2002:2 onwards
employedpreferred
=1 if employed and not a self-employed agricultural worker
metro
metro
urbrur2
area type, waves 23-50 (qlfs 2008:1- 2014:4)
urbrur3
type of area, qlfs 2015 -qlfs 2017:2
inperson
person is responding themselves
Total: 120
Back to Catalog