Supply-Side Constraints

The greatest challenges facing South Africa after 10 years of democracy are (1) how to accommodate HIV/Aids into the economy and (2) how to get people back to work. This paper focuses on the latter issue. Whilst much has been written as to the extent of unemployment in South Africa and whether there has been jobless growth or not in the past decade the area of geographical mobility and job search radius has received relatively little attention. This paper aims to address this research gap and provide evidence that is consistent with clear policies that will improve the geographical mobility of labour in the South African labour market. The aim of this paper is not to contribute to the heated debate on labour mobility and flexibility within the labour market1. Instead the paper investigates the role public transport plays in whether individuals are members of the searching or non-searching unemployed. Highlighting that public transport locality is important in determining whether the unemployed are searching or not provides clear implications for public transport policy. The unemployed are further investigated with regard to why they do not work. Anecdotal evidence presented reveals that both a perceived skill shortage and location of work/salary/working conditions dominates the individual’s explanation for being unemployed. However further analysis is required using different data sources to understand if a lack of geographical mobility (e.g. provincial flexibility) hinders the supply-side of the labour market