OpEd: South Africa's Informal Sector Creates Jobs

The publication of South Africa’s latest unemployment figures was accompanied by the usual wringing of hands and promises of job creation. This time, however, a new controversy arose because of an argument that official statistics don’t count economic activities in the informal sector.

WIEGO's Mike Rogan, a research associate in the Urban Policies Programme, and Caroline Skinner, WIEGO's Urban Policy Director, begin an OpEd in The Conversation this way. They go on to discuss why South Africa's informal sector is anything but a "shadow economy" and how it can and should be supported to improve the overall economic picture.

Read South Africa’s informal sector creates jobs, but shouldn’t be romanticised