Re-examining the South African labour force surveys

Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP05/2025
Publication date: November 2025
Author(s):
Abstract:

Since the advent of democracy, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) has been collecting comprehensive labour market data with the October Household Survey (1995-1999), Labour Force Survey (2000-2007) and Quarterly Labour Force Survey (2008 – ). In addition, the Census and other surveys have also been capturing some labour market data. In August 2025, StatsSA announced that the revamped Quarterly Labour Force Survey would be launched in the third quarter of the year, with various changes to define and derive some labour market status variables differently. This study is timely by aiming to provide further suggestions on possible changes that can still be made to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey questionnaire so as to capture labour market information even better.

JEL Classification:

C80, J00

Keywords:

Labour market, Labour market survey, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Employment, Unemployment, Entrepreneurship

Download: PDF (497 KB)