Investigating the subjective well-being of the informally employed: A case study of day labourers in Windhoek and Pretoria

Abstract

According to the official definition of unemployment, the latest figure puts unemployment in South Africa, which is the 103rd happiest country in the world, at 29.1% in the fourth quarter of 2019. Youth unemployment is more than 50% (Helliwell, Huang & Wang 2019; Statistics South Africa 2020). These are the highest levels of unemployment since 2008 and the onset of the world financial crisis. The expanded definition of unemployment, which includes those who are no longer looking for work, is 38.5%. This represents more than 10 million people (Statistics South Africa 2020). To put this into further perspective: South Africa, with a population of around 58 m people, has the same absolute number of unemployed people than the USA, with a population of around 320 m people. Namibia, which is the 113th happiest country in the world (Helliwell et al. 2019), faces similar problems of unemployment. The Namibian unemployment rate (measured using the same definition) was even higher at 33.4% in 2018 (Tradingeconomics 2019).