The Recent Decline in the Employment of Persons With Disabilities in South Africa, 1998‐2006

Abstract

This paper shows that there has been a significant decline in the employment and labour force participation of persons with disabilities in South Africa over the 1998 through 2006 period. Disability is defined based on activity limitations. Data are from the October and the General Household Surveys. The paper also deals with the possible causes of the decline. While several causes can be invoked, preliminary evidence suggests that the rise of the Disability Grant programme might be responsible for a part of the decline. Recommendations are made for future research and data collection on disability and employment. Copyright (c) 2008 The Author. Journal compilation (c) 2008 Economic Society of South Africa.

Is There a Disability Gap in Employment Rates in Developing Countries?

“…Finally, discrimination is a possible explanation of the disability gap in employment rates. This result is consistent with the one reached by Mitra andSambamoorthi (2005, 2008) in rural India. For males in the survey, a decomposition of the disability gap in employment rates was also carried out.…”

Disability, Health and Human Development

“…It starts with a review of the methods that can be used to measure impairments/health conditions and wellbeing. (Mitra 2008). This direct approach is convenient as it takes little time and space in a survey.…”

“…First, studies use different methods: some studies only present means and frequency counts of economic indicators across disability status (e.g., Hoogeveen 2005), while other studies resort to multivariate analysis using a variety of empirical strategies which can be difficult to compare. 6 Some studies measure disability through functional difficulties (e.g., , while others use broad activity limitations (e.g., Mitra 2008). Several of these studies ) rely on the World Health Survey (WHS) that was designed to collect a detailed health and disability profile of individuals but provides only summary measures of economic wellbeing, for instance, on employment and household expenditures.…”

Measurement, Data and Country Context

“…For instance, in South Africa, the General Household Survey had for several years a broad activity limitation question as follows: 'Is the person limited in his/her daily activities, at home, at work or at school, because of a long-term physical, sensory, hearing, intellectual, or psychological condition, lasting six months or more?' (Mitra 2008). This direct approach is convenient as it takes little time and space in a survey.…”