Any overview of the Eastern Cape labour market has to consider its national and historical context,
which includes not only the location of the Eastern Cape within the development of the South African
economy, but, tied to that, the location of such economic development itself within a larger social
and historical context. Engaging in labour market analysis is not a theoretically or politically neutral
exercise. Analyses undertaken in this report are generally positioned within the political economy
tradition, in terms of which the economy is viewed not in the abstract, but as embedded within social
and political systems with particular historical and geographic or spatial forms.
This report includes an outline of the legislative and policy framework through which formal
organisation of the labour market is framed. Excluded from direct coverage by this framework are
the people who are marginalised or excluded from active participation in the labour market by the
ways in which South African economic and social relations are structured. Those who are excluded
are variously counted as the unemployed, the underemployed and the informally employed, and are
particularly well represented in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.
This foundational overview of the Eastern Cape labour market does not limit itself to the formal
sector, or even to a quantification of unemployment, but also explores incomes and the distribution of
incomes and income poverty.
At its core, this foundational overview of the Eastern Cape labour market is an account of
employment, unemployment, incomes and education drawing on Census data and on administrative
data provided by the Department of Labour and the Department of Public Works.