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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Giving up job search during a recession: the impact of the global financial crisis on the South African labour market
Author:Verick, SherISNI
Year:2012
Periodical:Journal of African Economies (ISSN 0963-8024)
Volume:21
Issue:3
Pages:373-408
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:unemployment
economic behaviour
labour market
External link:https://jae.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/3/373.full.pdf
Abstract:The global financial crisis deeply impacted South Africa's labour market, resulting in the shedding of almost 1 million jobs over 2009 and 2010. Reflecting longer-term structural problems, this employment loss translated into a much larger rise in the number of discouraged individuals rather than in the number of those defined as 'narrowly' unemployed. This paper shows that this state of non-searching unemployment or discouragement has increased more during the recent crisis for uneducated African males. Moreover, individuals who have given up searching for a job during the recession are statistically different from those who continue searching. At the same time, searching is a transitory state for some of the jobless with considerable movements between the two categories of unemployment. These findings from the first postapartheid recession underscore the importance in the South African context of analysing a broad measure of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers. In response to these labour market challenges, the government should further reduce barriers to job search through such measures as training for the low-skilled and transport subsidies, along with other interventions that boost demand and job creation in rural areas. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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