Stats SA plans to roll out an updated quarterly labour force survey (QLFS) questionnaire in the third quarter of 2025 to improve the measurement of informality and labour underutilisation in the country.
The official statistics agency said in a statement on Friday that the updated QLFS questionnaire is also meant to capture “more nuanced labour market trends” and reflect evolving employment relationships, aligning the key survey with the “latest international standards”.
The size of SA’s informal sector has become a polarising debate since Business Day reported on a call by former Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie for SA to rethink its unemployment metric, contending that the headline figure of 32.9% could be closer to 10% when the vast informal sector is taken into account.
The Stellenbosch-based bank estimated SA has as many as 3-million informal businesses.
Fourie met with statistician-general Risenga Maluleke, minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni and senior National Treasury officials in July to discuss his thoughts on the informal sector.
At the end of the meeting, Stats SA said it continued to explore methods to improve labour market measurement and could look at a statistical register for small-scale and informal businesses. However, it said in a communiqué after the meeting that survey methodology did not support Capitec’s view that the unemployment rate was lower than the official rate.
The agency said on Friday it has engaged in comprehensive testing and has conducted pilot studies to ensure the upcoming survey modifications maintain the highest standards of accuracy and reliability.
“The benefits of implementing the new standards far outweigh the costs, enabling a more accurate interpretation of individuals’ labour force situation with more detailed information on various types of labour underutilisation, people’s participation in different forms of work and the pressure they put on the labour market,” it said.
“The implementation of the updated questionnaire marks a significant step forward in the effort to provide timely and relevant labour market insights for policymakers, researchers and the public. Through these enhancements, Stats SA aims to capture a more nuanced understanding of employment trends, economic participation and the overall labour market in SA.”
On Friday Stats SA said the current definition of informal employment uses medical aid and written contracts as two of the three criteria required. It said the new definition prioritises social insurance or access to paid and sick leave, which it says must both be accessible.
Key criterion
Furthermore, Stats SA said the current definition of the informal sector refers to registration and size. While the new resolution states that registration is the key criterion, the size of an outfit is no longer a required criterion.
“The implementation of the latest labour statistics standards and the associated revision to the QLFS will improve knowledge on labour market issues, though doing so may cause breaks in series in key informality indicators,” it said.
International Labour Organisation studies from countries that have adopted the 21st International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) resolution “suggest that changes in informality statistics are generally minimal, with only limited exceptions observed in specific national contexts”.
The government in July proposed cutting costs and red tape associated with business licensing to unlock the potential of small businesses via the country’s first national policy-level guidance on general business licensing. The endgame is to harmonise national, provincial and municipal business licensing to ensure synergy and alignment with regulations and bylaws.
Meanwhile, Stats SA said the concepts of “economically active population” and “not economically active population” are no longer to be used in the survey. “Labour force” and “out of the labour force” are recommended.
The agency will no longer use the maximum age of the working age population, though age ranges will still be used.
“Additional questions to identify employment comprehensively have been added to the questionnaire. These will classify the main intended destination of production for agriculture and fishing for those who indicated that they did some work in this sector.”
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