Figure 23: Percentage distribution of women and men aged 15–64 years in each population group by work status, 2011
Employed people are those aged 15–64 years who did at least one hour of economic work a week priorto the survey interview, plus those who were absent from work but had a job to return to. Unemployed people are those aged 15–64 years who did not do economic work during the seven days before the survey interview, but who actively looked for work or tried to start a business in the four weeks preceding the survey interview and were available for work. Those who are neither employed nor unemployed are classified as not economically active (NEA). This category includes both discouraged work-seekers and other NEA. Discouraged work-seekers are those who were not employed during the seven days before the survey interview, wanted work, were available to work/start a business, but did not take active steps to find work during the last four weeks, provided the main reason given for not seeking work was any of the following: no jobs available in the area; unable to find work requiring his/her skills; or lost hope of finding any kind of work.
Figure 23 shows that within each population group, a smaller proportion of women than men are employed and a larger proportion of women than men are not economically active. Among both men and women, the percentage employed is highest for whites and lowest for black Africans.
27
Figure 24: Involvement in economic activities by type of economic activity and sex, 2011
Market economic activities are those where goods are services are produced for people from outside the household, either in the private or public sector and where workers generally receive earnings for the work they do. Non-market economic activities are those where goods are produced for consumption within the household and where people do not earn money from the work done. Subsistence agriculture is the most common form of non-market economic activity. Non-market economic activities do not include unpaid services in the household such as housework and care for older people and children, as these are not considered to be “economic” activities.
Men are more likely than women to be engaged only in market activities, while women are more likely than men to be engaged only in non-market activities. Women are thus more likely than men to be doing unpaid economic work.
There is very little difference in the proportion of women and men who are involved in both market and non-market economic activities (i.e. 7,1% for women and 6,0% for men).
28
Figure 25: Percentage of employed women and men aged 15–64 years in each population group, 2001 and 2011
Figure 25 shows the percentage of women and men aged 15–64 within each population group who were employed in 2001 and 2011.
Among coloured and black African women, and coloured, black African and Indian/Asian men, the percentage employed in 2011 was lower than the percentage employed in 2001. The decline in employment was most marked among coloured men (3,9 percentage points), followed by black African women and coloured women (3,8 and 3,1 percentage points respectively). The graph further shows that black African women are less likely to be employed than not only black African men, but also than women and men of other population groups.
In 2011, more than a third (30,8%) of black African women were employed compared to over 56,1% of white women, 43,2% of coloured women and 40,2% of Indian/Asian women.
Similar to their female counterparts, black African men are less likely to be employed than men in other population groups. In 2011, 72,6% of white men were employed, 64,1% of Indian/Asian men and 54,7% of coloured men compared to 42,8% of black African men.
29
Figure 26: Percentage of employed women and men aged 15–64 years and above for each level of education, 2001 and 2011
Figure 26 looks at the change in employment levels between 2001 and 2011 by educational level for women and men aged 15–64 years.
The percentage of women and men who were employed decreased across all the categories between 2001 and 2011. The decrease is most marked for those with no schooling where the percentage of women employed decreased from 36,6% to 14,2% and the proportion of men employed decreased from 56,6% to 23,6%.
In 2001, the percentage of women and men with no schooling who were employed was higher than the percentage among women and men with less than grade 12. By 2011, the pattern had reversed and those with no schooling were less likely than those with formal education to be employed.
For both years and all three levels of education, women are less likely than men to be employed.
30
Figure 27: Official unemployment rate of population aged 15–64 years by sex and location, 2011
The unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed people by the sum of the number employed and the number unemployed. As noted previously, employed people are those who performed at least one hour of economic work during the week before the survey interview, plus those who are absent from work but have a job to return to. Unemployed people are those aged 15–64 years, who did not perform economic work during the week before the survey interview, actively looked for work or tried to start a business in the four weeks preceding the survey interview and were available for work.
Women are more likely than men to be unemployed. This pattern is found across all types of geographical areas. In 2011, the national unemployment rate for women was 5,4 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate for men.
For both women and men, unemployment rates in urban informal and tribal areas are higher than the national unemployment rate, while in urban formal and rural formal areas the unemployment rates are lower than the national unemployment rate.
The difference between the unemployment rates of women and men is most pronounced among those in rural formal and urban informal areas.
31
Figure 28: Official unemployment rate of population aged 15–64 years by sex and population group, 2001 and 2011
Figure 28 reveals that the unemployment rates for women are higher than those for men, and that this pattern is found for both 2001 and 2011. Further, for both years, the unemployment rates are higher for black Africans than for the other population groups. Black African women are thus most likely to be unemployed in both 2001 and 2011.
In 2001, the largest differences in unemployment rates between women and men were observed among the Indian/Asian and black African population groups (7,2 and 5,1 percentage points respectively).
The figure suggests a substantial decrease in the unemployment rate among Indian/Asian women in 2011, which reduces the difference between Indian/Asian women and men to 1,4 percentage points. This pattern must be treated with caution as the sample size for the Indian/Asian group is relatively small.
32
Figure 29: Percentage of employed women and men aged 15–64 years by status in employment, 2011
Figure 29 above shows that the vast majority of both women and men are employed as non- domestic employees (71,4% and 82,9% respectively). While a larger proportion of men than women are non-domestic employees, a much higher percentage of women than men are employed as domestic employees (14,5% compared to 0,5%)
Women are slightly more likely than men to be own-account workers as well as to help without pay in a household business. This suggests that women are more likely than men to be working in the informal sector.
In contrast, a much larger proportion of men than women are employers (7,5% as opposed to 2,8%).
33
Industry
Figure 30: Percentage distribution of employed women and men aged 15–64 years by industry, 2011
Figure 30 reveals that the community and social services sector is the most common sector of employment among women (28,7%) while the most common sector among men is trade (21,1%). A large part of community and social services is accounted for by government employment.
Among women, trade provides a further 24,4% of the main jobs, followed by private households (14,9%), finance (12,7%) and manufacturing (10,3%). The private household sector consists primarily of domestic work.
Among men, community and social services is the second largest job provider (15,9%), followed by manufacturing (15,6%) and financial services (13,1%).
Employed women tend to cluster into a smaller number of industries than men. The top three industries for women together account for more than two-thirds (68,0%) of women employment, while the top three industries for men account for 52,6% of the male total.
34
Figure 31: Percentage distribution of employed women and men aged 15–64 years by industrial sector, 2001 and 2011
Figure 31 shows the distribution of employed women and men in 2001 and 2011 by broad industry classification. The primary sector includes agriculture and mining. The secondary sector includes manufacturing, utilities and construction. The tertiary sector includes trade, transport, finance, community and social services.
The proportion of women employed in the tertiary sector increased by 5,6 percentage points over the ten-year period from 2001 to 2011, while the proportion of men employed in the same sector increased by 4,8 percentage points.
The proportion of women employed in the secondary sector and in private households decreased, while the proportion of men employed in the secondary and primarysectorsincreased over the period.
Between 2001 and 2011, the proportion of men employed in the primary sector decreased by 7,0 percentage points while the proportion for women fell by only 1,4 percentage points. However, by the end of the period, the primary sector still accounted for 9,2% of all male employment, as against only 4,0% of female employment.
35
Figure 32: Percentage distribution of women and men 15–64 years employed in the informal sector by industry, 2011
Figure 32 illustrates the percentage distribution of employed women and men across industries in the informal sector (excluding private households).
The figure reveals that industry distribution in the informal sector is skewed towards a limited range of sectors.
The skewness is particularly marked for women, in that well over half (58,4%) are employed in trade, 19,9% in services and 11,0% in manufacturing.For men, the largest job provider is again trade, but it accounts for only 35,9% of informal sector jobs, compared to 58,4% for women.
36
Figure 33: Percentage distribution of women and men aged 15–64 years employed in the formal sector by industry, 2011
Figure 33 shows that in the formal sector, over a third (37,0%) of women are employed in services, with another 21,9% in trade and 16,9% in finance. There is thus relatively less clustering in the formal sector than in the informal sector. Nevertheless nearly three-quarters (75,8%) of women are found in the top three industries – services, trade and finance.
Trade (18,7%), services (18,3%) and manufacturing (18,0%) each account for more or less equal proportion of the men employed in the formal sector. As with women, there is relatively less clustering in the formal sector than in the informal sector.
37
Occupation
Figure 34: Percentage distribution of women and men aged 15–64 years by occupational category, 2011
Figure 34 shows that 35,4% of employed women are in unskilled occupations, with 20,8% working in elementary jobs and 14,6% working as domestic workers. Among employed men, 22,7% work in unskilled occupations, with the overwhelming majority work in elementary jobs.
The next largest occupational categories for women are clerical (17,0%), sales and services (14,8%) and technician (14,1%). For men the next largest occupation groupings are craft and related trade (19,1%) and sales and services (14,5%).
A higher proportion among women (14,1%) are more likely to be technicians compared to men (8,7%). The technician category includes both technicians and associate professionals. The occupations covered include computer-related occupations, nursing aides and midwives, and less qualified primary, pre-primary and special education teachers. On the other hand, managerial occupations are largely more prone among men (10,4%) as opposed to among women (6,1%). Suggesting that men are more likely to be decision makers in their jobs compared to women.
38
Figure 35: Percentage distribution of employed women and men aged 15–64 years by broad occupational category, 2001 and 2011
Figure 35 provides a comparison of the occupational distribution of employed women and men in 2001 and 2011. The management, professional and technical grouping includes managers, professionals, associate professionals and technicians. The clerical and sales group includes clerical, service and sales workers. The artisan and operator group includes skilled agricultural workers, craft workers and operators.
There is a decrease of women who are working in the elementary occupation in 2011 (24,4%) compared to 2001 (29,5%). However, the percentage of women in this category remains higher than that for men in both 2001 and 2011.
In both years, women were far less likely than men to be working as artisans/operators. The percentages in this category decreased more for men than for women over the period. However, by 2011 men were still more than four times as likely as women to be in this category.
The percentages of both women and men in the top category (manager, professional, and technician) increased over the period, and the increase was larger for women than for men. By the end of the period, 30,7% of women were in this category, compared to 24,6% of men.
39
Figure 36: Percentage distribution by education of employed women and men aged 15–64 years in the top three occupational categories, 2011
Figure 36 shows, for women and men, the educational distribution for those who are in managerial, professional and technician and associate profession jobs.
The figure shows that for managers and technicians, women are more likely than men to have tertiary qualifications. The difference between women and men is largest for the technical category, where 58,8% of women but only 44,1% of men have tertiary qualifications.
For all three categories, the percentage of women who have less than grade 12 is smaller than the percentage of men with limited education. For this education level, the difference is 6,1 percentage points in the technician category, and 2,8 percentage points in the managerial category and 1,3 percentage points in the professionalcategory.
40
Figure 37: Percentage distribution of employed women and men aged 15–64 years by earnings, 2011
Figure 37 reveals marked gender disparities in the earnings of employed women and men in 2011.
Women are more likely than men to be found in the lower earning categories. The proportion of women who earned R1 000 or less per month was double the proportion of men who earned at this level. A further 23,9% of women and 20,8% of men earn between R1 000 and R2 000 per month.
In contrast, men are more likely than women to be found in the top earning categories.The proportion of men is about twice that of women among those who earn R16 000 or more per month.
41
Figure 38: Mean hourly earnings of women and men employees aged 15–64 years in each population group, 2011
Figure 38 shows the mean hourly earnings of employees by population group and sex. We show hourly earnings to remove the effect of possible differences in hours worked by women and men.
The figure shows that mean hourly earnings are higher for men than women across all population groups. The male–female differential is largest for white employees, followed by coloured employees. The male-female gap is relatively small for the black African and Indian/Asian population groups.
White male employees earn nearly four times as much per hour, on average, than black African male employees, while white women earn almost three times as much per hour, on average, as their black African counterparts.
42
Figure 39: Mean hours worked among women and men employees aged 15 years and above in each population group, 2001 and 2011
Some of the differences between monthly earnings of women and men may be explained by differences in hours worked. Figure 39 shows the mean hours worked by women and men employees aged 15–64 years during the week before the survey interview in 2001 and 2011. The figure shows that the mean hours decreased between 2001 and 2011 for women and men employees in all population groups. The decrease was most marked for white men (a decrease of twelve hours), white women ((a decrease of 11,8 hours)and black African men and women (decreases of 10,0 and 9,7 hours respectively).
In all population groups, men employees tended to work more hours than women employees in both 2001 and 2011. In 2001, the difference between women and men is about four percentage points among black African, coloured and white employees, but smaller among Indian/Asian employees. In 2011, the gender difference remains at more than 4 hours for black African employees, but has narrowed in the other population groups.
43
Figure 40: Mean minutes per day spent on unpaid housework, care of others and collecting fuel and water among employed women and men in each population group, 2010
Figure 40 shows that employed women from all population groups are more likely to spend more time doing unpaid housework, caring for others and collecting fuel and water than their employed male counterparts.
The figure also shows that, among women, employed black African women spend the most time (266 minutes) doing unpaid housework, while employed white women spend the least amount of time (198 minutes).
Although employed men in all population groups spend substantially less time doing unpaid household work than employed women, employed black African men spend more time on this work than employed coloured, Indian/Asian and white men. In 2010, employed black African men spent on average 20 more minutes doing unpaid housework than coloured and white men and 44 minutes more than Indian/Asian men.
44
Figure 41: Mean minutes per day spent by women and men aged 15–64 years on productive and unproductive activities, 2010
Paid work in the formal and informal sectors is included in the calculation of the gross domestic product (GDP), which is the standard measure of the size of the economy. The value of goods produced in subsistence agriculture is also included in the calculation of GDP. In Figure 41, these activities are referred to as 'GDP work'.
Activities such as unpaid housework, caring for other members of the household, caring for other members of the community, other community work, and collection of fuel and water are also productive activities, but they are not included in the calculation of GDP. In Figure 41, they are referred to as 'unpaid work'.
All other activities – such as sleeping, eating, socialising, learning and engaging in cultural activities – are not regarded as production. They are referred to in this publication as 'other activities'.
Figure 41 shows that men between the ages of 15 and 64 years spend an average of 254 minutes per day on GDP work, and 102 minutes per day on unpaid work. In contrast, women in this age group spend an average of 155 minutes on GDP work, and 253 minutes on unpaid work.
Overall, women spend an average of 408 minutes per day on paid and unpaid productive activities combined, compared to 356 minutes for men.
45
Medical benefits
Figure 42: Percentage of women and men employees aged 15–64 years in each population group who have medical cover through the workplace, 2011
Figure 42 shows that, overall, there is very little difference in the percentage of women and