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Number of employees employed in private households in South Africa
Date: 1 Aug 2018 Category: Economics |
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We take a look at the latest quarterly labour force survey (QLFS) and focus on the number of people employed in private households. Those include domestic workers, gardeners, butlers, pool cleaners etc.
Ever wonder how many people are employed by private households as domestic workers, gardeners, pool cleaners, butlers, chefs, drivers, private security etc? We take a look. |
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Number of people employed in private households for Apr-Jun 2018: 1 296 270
Yes that is right, 1.296 million people were employed in private households during the quarter April 2019 to June 2018. That equates to a private household employee for one out of every 7.6 households in South Africa. The line graph below shows the number of employees in the private household sector per quarter since the start of 2008.
Readers will note that just before the financial crisis in the USA which lead to economic recessions across the globe, the number of people employed by the private household sector was close to 1.4million people. But as households struggled to make ends meet, they started letting go of private household employees in order to save some money. It reached a low point in July-Sep 2014, with just over 1.18million people employed in the sector. Since then however the numbers has started improving again, and it is currently very close to the 1.3million people. So what is the gender breakdown of employees in the private household sector? The pie chart below shows the number of private household employees during Apr-Jun 2018 per gender
As the pie chart shows the sector is dominated by females, who are largely employed as domestic workers, nannies etc, while men in the sector are largely gardeners, drivers, private security etc. One wonders with the implementation of the new minimum wage level, how many of the people employed in the sector will loose their jobs due to the fact that households would no longer be able to afford additional household help?