A Profile of the Gauteng Province: Demographics, Poverty, Income, Inequality and Unemployment from 2000 till 2007

The Gauteng agricultural sector is a dynamic and livelihood sustainable sector. Approximately 0.46% of the Gauteng value added gross domestic product comes through agriculture and 0.61% of the population in Gauteng is working in this sector. There is thus a need for macro-economic research in order to investigate potential and current challenges and opportunities. This paper examines several of these challenges namely demographic compositions, unemployment, income distribution, poverty and inequality. It will provide results from the Labour Force Surveys from 2000 until 2007 with a more in-depth look into 2007. Population and labour force statistics provide the foundation for further analysis. This paper indicates that unemployment is being dominated by the African individuals and that employment in the Gauteng agricultural sector was on a decreasing trend, but is increasing again. It shows further that income distribution is highly skewed which leads to high levels of poverty and inequality. Agricultural incomes are lowest across all races compared to non-agricultural incomes except for the White farmers/farm workers who earn more than their counterparts in other sectors. Poverty is extremely high for African workers in the Gauteng agricultural sector but has decreased since 2000 to 2006, with an increase in 2007. One of the principal concerns is that of inequality. It shows no improvement, actually a widening in the inequality gap since 2000, with a high in-between race inequality and lower within race inequality in the Gauteng agricultural sector. Throughout the report the Gauteng agricultural sector is compared to the non-agricultural sector, Gauteng overall and South Africa for a better understanding of the Gauteng agricultural sector’s position. This report indicates that the Gauteng agricultural sector could benefit from intervention and support to correct the present state of decreasing employment, low income, and high poverty and inequality levels