Internal migration effects on labour market outcomes in South Africa

We proposition that South African migrants who move from rural to urban areas will experience lower rates of participation in the formal labour market compared to local residents in urban areas, and that the migrants would be over represented in the informal labour market and in unemployment. Using classical perspectives in Development Economics as elements of the framework for analysis we explore the first three waves of the South African National Income Dynamics Study (NiDS) panel data of 2008, 2010 and 2012 and what we find is that while there are some indicative trends that migrants from rural areas do not readily find employment in both the formal and informal labour market sectors, and on the main remain unemployed, the trends are still not reliable, with small subsamples, when tested using probability models. But on the other hand, possessing a Matric level of education and being older (above 30 years old) provide more reliable and better indications that one would be formally employed than being just a non-migrant residing in urban areas. We conclude therefore that such trends - indicative and/or established - should be accounted for when thinking about formulating policy strategies aimed at creating job opportunities (in both the formal and informal labour market sectors) as well as in developing skills for everyone including migrants, non-migrants and young people in rural or urban areas. The research on these and related issues should be on-going as data from the NiDS study accumulates with every wave making results hopefully more robust and reliable.

J2 and J6