| Type | Working Paper - Africa Growth Initiative Working Paper 45 |
| Title | Demographic, employment, and wage trends in South Africa |
| Author(s) | |
| Publication (Day/Month/Year) | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/06-demographic-employment-wage-trends-south-africa.pdf |
| Abstract | This paper looks to uncover the growth traps and opportunities for the South African economy, with a focus on underlying labour market dynamics. We explore the potential of South Africa’s demographic dividend. We also consider the structure of the labour market and the growth-employment interactions, which uncover the skills-biased labour demand path of the economy and a rising trend in the use of labour brokers to source temporary workers. Finally, we show a new labour market trend has emerged: a rise in the share of public sector employment along with higher conditional returns to public sector workers than to those in the private sector. |