CHARACTERISATION OF TIME-RELATED UNDEREMPLOYMENT IN A SOUTH AFRICAN MUNICIPALITY: A CASE OF BUSHBUCKRIDGE, MPUMALANGA PROVINCE

Abstract

Labour market is often characterised by an imbalance between demand and supply that sometime is a result of the available labour resources not being fully utilised. Labour underutilisation is known as underemployment. In South Africa, academic debates and analysis about underemployment are largely absent and workers in such positions remain under-researched. Literature review indicates three specific categories of underemployment namely time-related, skill-related and incomebased. This paper analyses the demographic characteristics of time-related underemployment using descriptive and logistic regression. The empirical evidence portion of the paper is based on data from a survey “War on Poverty Programme” conducted by the provincial department of Social Development in Mpumalanga. The study is based on a sample of 21668 individuals from targeted prioritised wards in Bushbuckridge Municipality, which is rural. This paper reveals that females are more likely to be underemployed comparing to males. It also indicates that older people are less likely to be underemployed compared to younger people. Furthermore, the study results confirmed that the more educated one gets the less likely to be underemployed. The study discusses the socioeconomic policy implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are made

Keywords

• Time-related underemployment, labour underutilisation, employment, labour market, South Africa

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