The changing nature of work: understanding precarity and the gendered individualisation of risk in post-apartheid South Africa
- Authors: Mhlana, Siviwe
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Precarious employment , Labor supply -- South Africa , Labor supply -- Statistics -- South Africa , Precarious employment -- South Africa , Informal sector (Economics) -- Employees -- South Africa , Women employees -- South Africa , Women temporary employees -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/172146 , vital:42170
- Description: Against the backdrop of workplace restructuring globally, post-Apartheid South Africa is experiencing consistently high levels of unemployment, the deterioration of employment security, and limited improvements in earnings. This trend in the proliferation of low-paid, unstable and otherwise insecure employment has given rise to a segment of the literature that is centred on the growing precariousness of work in a number of different contexts. This thesis reviews empirical work on the changing nature of labour-intensive production in the past two decades, with particular focus on the trends in non-standard, informal and precarious employment. Further, the thesis examines the shift in the gender structure of South Africa’s manufacturing sector and how it affects the share in the benefits of employment, particularly with regard to social reproduction. In so doing, the thesis expands the critical theoretical narrative about the challenges of labour under neoliberalism by providing an intersectional perspective of precarious work in post- Apartheid South Africa.
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- Date Issued: 2021
Perceptions of scarce skills in the department of Infrastructure and Engineering : Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality
- Authors: Oshoniyi, Oluwaseun Abodunrin
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Labor supply -- South Africa , Professional employees -- South Africa. , Professional employees -- Supply and demand -- South Africa , Occupational training -- South Africa , South Africa -- Economic policy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:8488 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1019843
- Description: The scarcity of skills is a global phenomenon, affecting the capacity building, economic growth and development components of all nations. The African continent has been affected by skills shortages, emanating from certain socio-economic factors. This resulted in the ‘brain drain’, emigration and absorption of skilled talent to developed countries, in search of a better standard of living and employment opportunities. The issue of scarce skills in South Africa was identified by the Government in 2006, due to an identified shortage of expertise and proficiencies, required to fill numerous vacant positions within the local government to meet service delivery needs. The identification of skills shortages led to the formulation of macro-economic policies to address the issue of scarce skills and the identification of the most affected professions, which included, inter alia, engineers; technicians; project managers; and architects. Despite the implementation of these policies, underlying factors compound the issue, complicating and limiting remedial efforts. The South African Government is faced with the challenge of providing quality basic services for the public, especially at the local level. The country has since 2010 experienced multiple incidents of service delivery protests, predominantly in the under-developed communities. The Eastern Cape is no exception, as the Nelson Mandela Bay area has experienced protests, concerning poor service delivery, primarily in Walmer Township. The provision of basic services, are of dire necessity to the communities, as the Eastern Cape is one of the poorest provinces in South Africa. The educational system at primary and secondary levels is faced with challenges in the Eastern Cape province. These challenges are the shortage of teachers; poor infrastructure; and teacher absenteeism. This compounds the issue of scarce skills acquisition and development; the volume of skilled, expert and proficient talent available to the municipality, to fill in vacancies, gaps and areas with shortfalls and deficits within the entity, is reduced and minimal, underscoring the depth of the entrenchment of this scarcity of skills issue. The primary focus of the study is to expose the factors contributing to skills shortages and the implications, apropos service delivery, from the municipal workers’ perceptions. The study highlights and describes the factors affecting scarce skills acquisition and development in South Africa, along with providing a background of the Eastern Cape and demonstrating that the shortage of skills, within the Infrastructure and Engineering Department of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, has an impact on the production, efficacy and efficiency of services for communities. The study also emphasises the essentiality of quality leadership and management within the organisation, a pivotal aspect in ensuring the municipality performs at optimal level, meeting organisational goals. This is a critical issue, as the study revealed that sound management and leadership is lacking within the municipality, affecting quality of the service delivery output. The findings of this study further revealed that adequate training and development is lacking in the municipality. This is hampering skills development, outstandingly with regard to technical skills talents, as their training needs are not met.
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- Date Issued: 2012
The relationship between employability and labour market participation
- Authors: Uwuoruya, Nosayaba Frederick
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Labor supply -- South Africa , Unemployment -- South Africa Work environment Work -- Social aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/36111 , vital:33894
- Description: Unemployment is an urgent socio- economic issue facing not just Sub-Saharan Africa but also the global world at large (Yu, 2013). Globally, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that 201 million people were unemployed in 2014. Almost 74 million of those unemployed were young people (aged 15-24) in 2014. The ILO report further states that the number of people seeking employment was over 30 million more than in 2008, because several people lost their jobs due to the world economic recession. One of the results recorded from the ILO’s World Employment and Social Outlook 2016, show that youth unemployment is still three times that of the adult unemployment rate at 13.1% (ILO, 2016). Unemployed youths are estimated to be 73.3 million, a 3.3% decline from the global crisis in 2008 (ILO,2016:6). Crisp and Powell, (2016) indicate youth are vulnerable due to the economic fragility of the labour market and uneven recovery over the past years.The case of Sub-Saharan Africa is no different. South Africa is one of the countries grappling with high rates of unemployment, especially among youths (Burger & Fintel, 2009). According to a report by Statistics South Africa in 2015, 5.2 million of the labour force were unemployed, while 15.1 million South Africans are not economically active- resulting in an unemployment rate of 24.5% in the fourth quarter of 2015 (Statistics South Africa, 2015). Since- 2010, the first quarter of each year recorded increases in unemployment levels. The number of unemployed individuals had increase by more than half a million (626000, 521000) in the first quarter of 2015 and 2016 respectively (Statistics South Africa, 2016). The youth unemployment rate in South Africa decreased to 47.60% in the third quarter of 2016 from 53.70% in the second quarter of 2016.
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- Date Issued: 2018