Following the onset of democratic rule in South Africa in April 1994, it soon became clear that the transition was a political one, in the narrowest sense of the term. Specifically, the new South African government has been, and indeed continues to be, beset with the longer term and more inertial consequences of apartheid. These consequences can be represented generically as the economic outcomes engendered by the policy of legislated racial exclusivity. Nowhere is this challenge more acute than within the arena of the labour
market. The ability, or lack thereof, of the domestic economy to generate a sufficient quantum of jobs has constantly come under policymakers’ scrutiny. The focus of this paper then is to attempt to document and identify the key trends in the labour market – in an attempt at hopefully understanding the factors that may be driving the performance of this factor market.