Survey of Employers and Self-Employed 2017

South Africa, 2017

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Reference ID

zaf-statssa-sese-2017-v1

Producer(s)

Statistics South Africa

Collections

South African Labour Force Survey Data

Metadata

DDI/XML JSON

Created on

Sep 11, 2019

Last modified

Oct 15, 2020

Page views

60884

Downloads

1979

Identification

Survey ID number

zaf-statssa-sese-2017-v1

Title

Survey of Employers and Self-Employed 2017

Country

Name	Country code
South Africa	zaf

Study type

Enterprise/Establishment Survey [en]

Series Information

Statistics South Africa. Survey of Employers and Self-Employed 2017 [dataset]. Version 1. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa [producer], 2019. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/2yp4-we96

Abstract

The Survey of Employers and the Self-employed (SESE) is an enterprise-based survey that collects data on micro- and small businesses in South Africa. The survey covers information about the characteristics of businesses in the informal sector to gain an understanding of their operation and access to services. The focus of the survey is businesses who are not registered for Value Added Tax (VAT). These small and micro-businesses are generally excluded from the business frame which is used in surveys of the formal economy conducted by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA).

StatsSA collects SESE information from the third quarter of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) every four years. The information is gathered from household respondents that identify as being self-employed. Prior to 2009, the SESE collected household information from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The first survey in the series (SESE 2001) collected information from the March 2001 LFS. The second survey in the series (SESE 2005) collected information from the September 2005 LFS. The third survey in the series (SESE 2009) collected information from the third quarter 2009 QLFS. The fourth survey in the series (SESE 2013) collected information from the third quarter 2013 QLFS. This is the fifth survey in the series (SESE 2017), which collects information from the third quarter 2017 QLFS.

The main objectives of SESE are to collect reliable data about people running businesses which are not registered for VAT, identify the non-income tax paying and income tax paying businesses within the non-VAT paying businesses and produce comprehensive statistical information about informal sector businesses, at national and provincial levels. Therefore, SESE data enables research in gauging the contribution made by businesses which are not registered for VAT towards economic growth in South Africa.

Kind of Data

Sample survey data

Unit of Analysis

Individuals and establishments

Version

Version Description

v1: Edited, anonymised data for public distribution

Version Date

2019-03-19

Version Notes

Version 1 of the survey is weighted according to the QLFS 2009 person weights that are based on population benchmarks from the 2011 Population Census.

Scope

Notes

This survey collects data on the operations of small and micro-businesses including information about their premises, the establishment of the business and start-up finance. Data was also collected on business production and the workforce, expenditure, capital and transport.

Coverage

Geographic Coverage

The survey has national coverage.

Geographic Unit

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

Universe

The survey covered non-VAT registered businesses in the South African informal sector.

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators

Name
Statistics South Africa

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 2017.

Survey instrument

Questionnaires

The 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
2017-09-25	2017-09-29

Data Collectors

Name	Affiliation
Statistics South Africa	Government of South Africa

Data Collection Notes

A sample for the SESE 2017 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

In 2001, SESE was conducted in March and the SESE interview was undertaken immediately after the LFS interview while the enumerator was still at the dwelling unit. In 2009, 2013 and 2017, data collection for the QLFS occurred 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. In 2005, data collection occurred in September over a two-week period while in 2001 information was collected from respondents in March. Because of these changes in the methodology, comparisons should be interpreted with caution.

The 2001 and 2005 SESE estimates have been revised, using the revised LFS estimates. The LFS estimates were revised after the introduction of the QLFS. The 2001 and 2005 datasets only covered those aged 15-64 years, while in 2009, 2013 and 2017, all persons aged 15 years and above were included.

The 2009 SESE estimates have been revised by StatsSA based on new population benchmarks from the 2011 Population Census. However, the 2005 SESE estimates have not yet been adjusted to reflect the new population benchmarks. The adjustment process in this regard is more complex since it involves the computation of new link factors to align the historical LFS series (2000 to 2007) to the QLFS series. Caution is therefore required when interpreting trends based on the absolute numbers which include the 2005 results.

access_policy

Access authority

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

Access conditions

Public use files, available to all

Citation requirements

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

2020-10-15

Metadata version

DDI Document version

Version 4

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