THE AGRARIAN RURAL HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY

The head of the household will almost always be a farm
worker in these conditions (though it differs for labour
tenancy in KZN), meaning that workers are overrepresented
since no data on other dwellers was gathered.
Unemployment is the third largest overall category, at
nearly a quarter (23.7%) of all household members.
Again, concern is noted about the possibility of SPP data
skewing the sample away from the unemployed. National
unemployment was reported at 23.9% in the fourth
quarter of 2011 2 . Annexure 2 shows widely diverging
district statistics, ranging from 7% to 79%. There are
certainly differences in the way unemployment is
understood and applied. For males, unemployment is
only the fourth largest category after off-farm employment.
Women experience much higher unemployment (28%)
than men (19%). Women also constitute the highest
percentage of those unemployed (62%). The question
did not attempt to capture the narrow definition of
unemployment (i.e., anyone actively looking for work
currently without employment). We simply asked the
respondent to indicate which members of the household
are unemployed.
When we look at unemployment by age we come across
some anomalies that show we did not entirely remove
children from the unemployed/none category, while we
did not exclude pensioners (over 60). If these groups are
considered, this will increase the unemployment rate,
since they will not have employment, unless we consider
child labour as openly admitted. The unemployment rate
for the youth category (19-35) and the older incomegenerating
age (36-59) show that youth unemployment
is slightly higher (22.5%) than unemployment for older
income earners (19.7%). Both figures are lower than the
overall average (23.7%), so we will need to separate out
these two categories for exclusive attention on
unemployment.
Off-farm employment is the fourth biggest category for
women (13.7%), and the third biggest category for men
(20%), with a combined 17%. Twenty percent of this work
comes from government for both men and women
(suggesting gender equity in government programmes),
and the rest from the private sector. The combined total
in wage employment (off-farm employment plus farm
workers) is 42%. In the question on main source of income
below, the data indicates that a much higher proportion
(60%) rely on wages as their primary source of income.
It may be that farmers, for example, identify themselves
as farmers even though they currently rely on wages as
their main source of income. This is consistent with the
history of agriculture in South Africa, where the majority
THE AGRARIAN RURAL HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY REPORT
of producers rely on externally-generated cash to do
farming. Input costs are generally higher than any sales,
and most households produce primarily for their own use.
Own business/self-employed is fairly low at 5.5%, and
is discussed in more detail below, under income. It is
evenly balanced across gender.
Farmers (52%) and the unemployed (48%) constitute the
highest percentage of respondents with levels of education
below matric (N=935, with 2,205 individuals). Off-farm
employment and own business/self-employed (both 40%)
had the lowest number of respondents with less than a
matric. According to Bhorat (2009:9), unemployment rates
rose between 1995 and 2005 across all levels of
education.
KEY POINTS
• The standard picture of rural migration is contradicted.
There is a high proportion of people of prime incomegenerating
age present in the rural areas
• Average households are made up of four people
• Nearly a quarter of the population (24%) is unemployed,
with women experiencing much higher unemployment
(28%) than men (19%)
• Fifty-five percent of those over 18 in the households were
identified by respondents as farmers or farm workers
2 Trading Economics “South Africa unemployment rate”,
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/south-africa/unemployment-rae
- accessed 12.05.04.
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