Labour Market Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic is the worst global crisis since World War II. Its containment measures (lockdown) have caused unprecedented disruption on economies and labour markets. Informal workers in South Africa and the world over bore a disproportionate burden of these social distancing measures. A study conducted by an academic consortium which was published on July 15th, showed how the pandemic has impoverished SA and made one of the world's most unequal countries even more so. Yesterday the findings from the second wave of NIDS-CRAM were released and they show we are experiencing the worst labour market crisis in our history. Michael Avery talks to Nic Spaull, a Senior Researcher in the Economics Department at Stellenbosch University; and Andrew Levy, one of South Africa's best known labour resources and one of the founding CCMA commissioners