Youth unemployment in South Africa revisited

Figures & data

Figure 1: Youth and non-youth unemployment rates, 1995–2012

Figure 2: Youth employed, narrow unemployed and discouraged workseekers, 2008–12

Table 1: Characteristics of the youth narrow unemployed and discouraged workseekers, QLFS 2008Q1 and QLFS 2012Q1

			Narrow unemployed (A)			Discouraged workseekers (B)				Ratio B/A
		QLFS 2008Q1		QLFS 2012Q1		QLFS 2008Q1		QLFS 2012Q1
		1 000s	Share (%)	1 000s	Share (%)	1 000s	Share (%)	1 000s	Share (%)	QLFS 2008Q1	QLFS 2012Q1
Total		2 318	100.0	2 413	100.0	593	100.0	1 260	100.0	0.259	0.522
Race	Black	2 014	86.9	2 090	86.6	562	94.6	1 208	95.8	0.279	0.577
	Coloured	215	9.3	240	9.9	27	4.5	42	3.3	0.123	0.173
	Indian	35	1.5	24	1.0	4	0.6	3	0.3	0.099	0.141
	White	53	2.3	59	2.5	2	0.3	7	0.6	0.034	0.123
Gender	Male	1 128	48.7	1 173	48.6	225	38.0	591	46.9	0.200	0.504
	Female	1 190	51.3	1 240	51.4	368	62.0	669	53.1	0.309	0.538
Province	Western Cape	241	10.4	288	11.9	23	3.9	16	1.3	0.095	0.057
	Eastern Cape	292	12.6	277	11.5	132	22.2	230	18.3	0.452	0.831
	Northern Cape	55	2.4	53	2.2	18	3.1	18	1.4	0.335	0.341
	Free State	157	6.8	179	7.4	29	4.8	35	2.8	0.183	0.194
	KwaZulu-Natal	435	18.8	396	16.4	88	14.9	323	25.6	0.203	0.813
	North West	137	5.9	151	6.3	84	14.1	128	10.1	0.610	0.843
	Gauteng	624	26.9	704	29.2	108	18.2	138	11.0	0.173	0.196
	Mpumalanga	156	6.7	218	9.1	49	8.3	144	11.4	0.317	0.654
	Limpopo	222	9.6	147	6.1	62	10.5	229	18.1	0.279	1.555
Education	No schooling	17	0.7	9	0.4	7	1.1	9	0.8	0.385	1.014
	Incomplete primary	132	5.7	83	3.5	65	11.1	90	7.2	0.495	1.083
	Incomplete secondary	1168	50.7	1190	49.6	354	60.0	731	58.2	0.303	0.614
	Matric	860	37.3	960	40.0	151	25.6	379	30.1	0.176	0.394
	Matric + Certificate/Diploma	101	4.4	127	5.3	13	2.1	46	3.7	0.125	0.358
	Degree	27	1.2	30	1.2	1	0.1	2	0.1	0.015	0.051
Age	18 to 20 years	395	17.0	370	15.3	133	22.4	236	18.8	0.562	1.067
	21 to 24 years	966	41.7	988	40.9	231	39.0	500	39.6	0.463	0.976
	25 to 29 years	957	41.3	1 056	43.7	229	38.6	524	41.6	0.239	0.495
Ever worked before	Yes	961	41.5	877	36.4	217	36.5	312	24.8	0.225	0.356
	No	1 356	58.5	1 536	63.6	377	63.5	948	75.2	0.278	0.615

Table 2: The determinants of employment for youths, QLFS 2008Q1 and QLFS 2012Q1

	Ratio of relative risk
	QLFS 2008Q1		QLFS 2012Q1
	Employed	Narrow unemployed	Employed	Narrow unemployed
Gender: male	2.297*	1.649*	1.618*	1.185*
Race: coloured	2.546*	1.474**	1.689*	0.970
Race: Indian	3.895*	1.640	15.459*	3.788**
Race: white	17.816*	3.176**	15.879*	3.339*
Province: Western Cape	4.332*	2.961*	13.883*	11.700*
Province: Northern Cape	1.185	1.145	2.546*	2.612*
Province: Free State	2.223*	2.266*	4.134*	4.681*
Province: KwaZulu-Natal	2.828*	2.068*	1.510*	1.057
Province: North West	0.747**	0.675*	0.828	1.048
Province: Gauteng	2.171*	1.916*	3.155*	3.335*
Province: Mpumalanga	1.826*	1.367**	1.190	1.113
Province: Limpopo	1.214	1.631*	0.860	0.679*
Age: 25 to 29 years	2.182*	1.202**	2.360*	1.176**
Education: primary	0.991	1.016	0.886**	0.888**
Education: secondary	1.085*	1.118*	1.110*	1.204*
Education: Matric	1.581*	1.314*	1.581*	1.356*
Education: Matric + Certificate/Diploma	4.142*	1.968*	2.476*	1.483*
Education: degree	21.556*	10.290**	17.096*	6.111*
Marital status: married/live together with a partner	1.200	1.268	1.322	1.785
Household head dummy	3.139*	1.162	3.137*	1.295*
Number of children 0 to 14 years in the household	0.844*	0.883*	0.822*	0.874*
Number of elderly aged 60+ years in the household	0.792*	0.850*	0.829*	0.883**
Number of other employed	1.754*	1.185**	2.179*	1.360*
Number of other narrow unemployed	1.714*	2.615*	1.758*	2.933*
Sample size (unweighted)	11 971		10 247
Pseudo R^2	0.1362		0.1716

Notes: Reference group: discouraged workseekers. *Significant at 1%. **Significant at 5%. ^†Significant at 10%.