South Africa's employed population sitting at 11 million people
|
Category: Labour Market and Economics
Date: 2 March 2023 Statistics South Africa published South Africa's latest quarterly labour force survey results. These results showed that there are 11 million people employed in South Africa, compared to the 7.8 million unemployed people in the country.
|
|
Total number of employed people in South Africa
The image below shows the number of people employed in various sectors of South Africa. In total there are 11 million people employed in South Africa, with 68.9% of these being employed in the formal sector, 3 million people employed in the informal sector, 1.1 million people are employed in private households (domestic workers, gardeners, butlers, handymen etc).
According to the latest QLFS there are 860 thousand persons employed in the agriculture sector in South Africa. So there are more people employed in private households in South Africa than on farms in SA.
According to the latest QLFS there are 860 thousand persons employed in the agriculture sector in South Africa. So there are more people employed in private households in South Africa than on farms in SA.
The worry about the employment numbers is the fact that the number of employed and number of personal income tax payers are vastly different. According to the South African Revenue Service 2021 tax statistics South Africa had 5.2 million income tax payers, yet there are 11 million people employed. So essentially left than half of the people that are employed earn money to pay personal income tax.
This type of skewness in terms of tax payers that are employed and those employed and not paying taxes is not sustainable and something will eventually give. Either tax payers will start to revolt against paying taxes or they will leave the country or the tax net will have to be widened by reducing the minimum income bracket from when income earners starts paying taxes.
This type of skewness in terms of tax payers that are employed and those employed and not paying taxes is not sustainable and something will eventually give. Either tax payers will start to revolt against paying taxes or they will leave the country or the tax net will have to be widened by reducing the minimum income bracket from when income earners starts paying taxes.