Financial Mail - 10 November 2011
SA has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world but proportionately one of the smallest informal sectors. Claire Bisseker asks what this contradiction means for economic growth and job creation.
This is the view of Kate Philip, an adviser to the presidency on public employment and head of inequality & economic marginalisation at Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies , an economic think-tank.
SA's economy is not typical of a developing country. The key difference between SA and other African countries is that SA has a sizeable manufacturing sector (14% of GDP), of which 97% of value added comes from formal businesses.
What many people don't know is how this structure influences the survival of those living at the margins and constrains the scope for the growth of the informal sector.