Determinant of the relationship between labour force participation in South Africa for both male and female

Abstract

Reducing poverty and inequality are key challenges in South Africa. Access to the labour market and earnings differentials are the main drivers of poverty and inequality in South Africa (Leibbrandt et al.,2010). Educational attainment and quality of education play an important role in determining labour market success but remain strongly correlated with socioeconomic status (Spaull, 2010). Labour force participation increased significantly in the late 1990s and early 2000s and employment, though growing, could not keep pace (Branson and Wittenberg, 2007). The increase in participation was primarily driven by an increase in African participation, especially among females, the youth and those with less education. Kingdon and Knight (2008) and Casale and Posel (2002) attribute the increase in female participation to the decrease in marriage rates, increase in single person households, improvements in educational attainment and the loss of male employment. The rise in young participants can also, in part, be attributed to the Department of Education discussion of a policy in 1995 to reduce the number of over- age learners in schools.