Bell, Trevor : Unemployment in South Africa

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imzlO.ion of this form of voluntary unenployment is doubtlcsa one rvum for the highor rates of unapl-ent f a d here, by Simkins fox &StMco, C-ad with Ewmp and North Imerica. If it were oxclwied (an it ia by the Current Poplation Survey) the absolute 1.~01 of unqloymsnt wuld naturally be lar, and the Black u-loylant rat0 in South Africa would "mare more favourably with that of non-Blacks hore as well am with unamployment rates in other cmmtriom. Tho wstion, thorefor., arise. whether this type of YI).qlm-t ahmld ba orittad for tho purpose. of measuring ths hlut. 1ov.1 of tho w loymmt rate Ln South Africa. It .hnld ba mt.d, h-cr, that such parids of 'voluntary' rest by liwauu y fr-up job. in rFnlnq for other dgrants. rho night o+honiao have pried. of uriorcod r0.t to tho lack of job vauncio.. eont as .bring a pol of job., or longrr prlods of rest due mat ia, dgrants may be seen to some of a more or less fixed sire, by -illatinq b.- tam and country. l%us, for instance, the mNn.ion of th. pried of s-ice contracts on the minos may well -0 e-i&r&l. hardmhip to thoaa waiting in the resarvea for their turn to work. men in the case of the unqloysent due tc such p.~iods of rut, threforo, the grounds for calling it 'voluntary' U. not C1.IP-"st. oLrilar pmbla rould me- to present itself In the case of a .0fllmr who is wlwlqod in the halands b.cawo the besr rare of pmy in job. avdllbls to h h thora i. R30 per weak compared with. ..y, tho rat. of RID0 in jobs in tam for pareons of his level af .kill (whoro h. my prrvi-ly have worked). Should we aay that he is wluntarily -1q-d and that his case at least is not part of a mocln1 ptvbla of u~uvl-ent and shld thermfore not be lncluded - in tho -UF. of -1oy.mt7 If we do rsssrd this as 'voluntary' m-1-t, &d wa tsk. tho .- view if the waqa svailabla in tb. bland uu n10 per forty hour week. or would society then say UYt hi. rofl~al of work at thim rate W ~ B justified. and that his -LOJIQt shoold b. reqarded se involuntary and thus as genuine ~ l - t ? It i m clearly quite pxsihle that we mould reqard
unemployment in the first case as voluntary and not want to include it in the measure of unemployment, or if it was so included, that we would wish to qualify any finding of a high unemployment rate, for this reason. We would possibly regard the second case however as involuntary and wish to include it in the measure of unemployment' ) . What should be clear from this and the previous example of migrants 'resting' in the rural home, is that any estimate of the absolute level of unemployment is closely connected with the problem of distinguishing voluntary and involuntary unemployment and that decisions on both these issues axe essentially arbitrary. Tney involve definitional matters and since all definitions are arbitrary there is no way of devising a 'scientific', true measure of the absolute level of unemployment at a particular point in time, or of the way in which unemployment is divided between voluntary and involuntary. Tnis arbitrariness on its own is not a conclusive argument against trying to develop a satisfactory measure of the absolute level of unemployment. If the task was considered important enough we would simply have to adopt some convention and make our case for the measure chosen. (b) In view of the difficulties outlined it is perhaps just as well that the taek of measuring the true, absolute level of unemployment does not seem in itself to be of the highest importance. In some circumstances the absolute level of unemployment may have political - - 11 A similarly arbitrary decision would have to be made as to whether a job providing only five hours employment per week should be regarded as a full job equivalent to a forty hours per week job in the formal sector (as the Current Population Survey estimates assume is the case); or whether the dividing line should be ten hours, twenty hours etc. See, for instance, the very nice study of the Coloured ccmmnity of Bishop Lavis, Cape Tom by Blau, Thomas g g 1982, which indicates how measured unemployment rates vary depending on whether the narrow definition of the Current Population Survey, or a broader one taking into account underemployment as well, is applied.
Page 2 and 3: INSllIUTt TOR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC R
Page 4 and 5: i CONTENTS Page - u.t of Tabla0 and
Page 6 and 7: Preface This paper is an extension
Page 8 and 9: Applications by whltea for Employme
Page 10 and 11: Simkins. His work is noteworthy par
Page 12 and 13: There is not, to my knowledge, anot
Page 14 and 15: The evidence thus suggests a persis
Page 16 and 17: ~i~~~~ 1: UNEMPLOYMENT PATES: UNITE
Page 18 and 19: Table 5: Unemployment Rates in Scnn
Page 20 and 21: Thue in a number of other countries
Page 22: Table 6 Registered Unemployment Rat
Page 25 and 26: Table 7 Non-Agricultural Employment
Page 28 and 29: In the case of Blacks, employment g
Page 30 and 31: governwant intervention in foreign
Page 32 and 33: Real Intwraat Rats and Rats of Incr
Page 34 and 35: Table 9 Real Interest Rates and Ave
Page 36 and 37: grawth in general rather than to an
Page 38 and 39: hetbr th. unemployment in voluntary
Page 40 and 41: it is argued that for a small open
Page 44 and 45: significance1). However, the findin
Page 46 and 47: Thus where the unemployment rate sh
Page 48 and 49: have expected a substantial increas
Page 50 and 51: vii) Finally, amongst the causes of
Page 52 and 53: traditionally been considerably hig
Page 54 and 55: already become much more difficult
Page 56 and 57: unemployment is deregulated markets
Page 58 and 59: 'thirties and even the postvar peri
Page 60: might, JB (1982) "The Nature of Une

Bell, Trevor : Unemployment in South Africa

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