Day labourers, unemployment and socio-economic development in South Africa
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Date
2009Author
Harmse, Alet
Schenck, Catherina (Rinie)
Blaauw, Phillip (Derick)
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One of the most visible forms of unemployment is the men who stand at
the side of the road or on corners daily, waiting for any job that may come their way.
It is estimated that there are nearly 1,000 places in South Africa where a minimum of
about 45,000, mostly black African men, stand, waiting to be picked up. The South
African space economy is characterised by an uneven distribution of economic
activities. International empirical studies have shown that there is a geographical or
spatial coincidence between levels of unemployment and levels of gross domestic
product per capita. The first objective of this article is to highlight some of the basic
demographic dynamics of day labourers. The second is to investigate the spatial
distribution of and the relationship between day labourers, unemployment and the
general level of socio-economic development in South Africa. Day labourers share a
number of common characteristics, but there were also obvious differences in their
morale and spirit. The analyses showed that there is also a general spatial
coincidence between levels of socio-economic development and the numbers of
day labourers in South Africa, with a relatively high correlation coefficient between
the two.