PhD Seminar: Who Works Where? Race and Structural Transformation in South Africa, 1970–2025

Who Works Where? Race and Structural Transformation in South Africa, 1970–2025

This paper examines how South Africa’s employment structure changed across the apartheid and post-apartheid periods, focusing on differences between African, Coloured, Asian and White workers. It brings together historical South African Statistics tables, the Manpower Survey, population censuses and the Post-Apartheid Labour Market Series to construct broad sectoral and occupational comparisons. The analysis traces employment shifts between primary, secondary and tertiary activities, changes in occupational shares within racial groups, and changes in racial composition within sectors and occupations. This presentation reports work in progress. Comments and suggestions on the analysis and its further development are particularly welcome.