UNEMPLOYMENT

In principle, unemployment is easy to define. A person is unemployed if he or she desires employment but cannot find a job. The unemployment rate is then obtained by expressing the number of unemployed persons as a percentage of the total number of people willing and able to work (the so-called labour force).

In practice, the definition and measurement of unemployment is quite complicated. As far as the definition is concerned, there is a difference of opinion as to whether or not a person who desires work but who makes no effort to find work should be classified as unemployed. According to the strict definition only those people who take active steps to find employment, but fail to do so, are regarded as unemployed. The expanded definition, on the other hand, includes everyone who desires employ-ment, irrespective of whether or not they actively tried to obtain a job.

Statistics South Africa, the agency responsible for estimating unemployment in South Africa, uses both definitions, but currently the strict definition is regarded as the official one. In 1999, for example, the South African unemployment rate was 23,3% according to the strict (official) definition and 36,2% according to the expanded definition. Irrespective of the definition used, there can be no doubt that unemployment is the most important socio-economic problem in South Africa.