Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Monitoring and evaluation has in recent years been embraced by the South African government as a key feature of public service delivery. This has been used to promote efficiency in service delivery, good governance, to promote transparency in expenditure and promote financial accountability, so that set objectives can be achieved objectives. However, implementing Monitoring and Evaluation has also been challenging as a result of poor policy design, poor policy implementation, the lack of accountability and the lack of exemplary systems. The issue of service delivery efficiency remains paramount in South Africa, due to the increasing inequality gap, high levels of unemployment, service delivery protests and rising poverty. Assessing policy outcomes and impact is a weak point and major gap in policy evaluation in South Africa. This is reflected in the manner in which duplicate policies are continuously being created instead of making existing ones work, or improving upon them. More efforts should be invested into policy monitoring and evaluation instead of policy development. The study will investigate the above assertion by investigating monitoring and evaluation policy and practice in the National Youth Development Agency. The structure of this framework will be examined against the Government-wide Monitoring and Evaluation framework established by the South African government. The research will also examine monitoring and evaluation practice as carried out by the United Nations and the World Bank as they have a long history of practice. This investigation will look at activities, inputs, outputs, implementation constraints, outcome and impact assessment; it will also discuss monitoring report and policy/programme evaluation. The study will adopt a descriptive case study investigation by drawing on the viewpoints expressed by various scholars. It will also highlight policies which support and enable the practice of M & E in South Africa. This research is noteworthy in the sense that it bridges the gaps between Monitoring and Evaluation literature and Monitoring and Evaluation practice in an institution. Furthermore, it explores the complexities of Monitoring and Evaluation implementation in a department running various programmes.

Magister Economicae - MEcon / The South African economy faces a challenging socio-economic problem of high and persistent unemployment since the transition. Looking at the unemployment problem in greater perspective, numerous studies found that it is most serious amongst the youth. Since the beginning of the 2000s, a few studies focused particularly on youth and graduate unemployment, but there has been a lack of research in this area in recent years. Hence, this dissertation aims to fill some gap in the available research by investigating the extent, nature and causes of graduate unemployment in South Africa. This study firstly defined the relevant concepts and discussed some theories relevant to graduate unemployment, before reviewing the results of the past studies on the nature and extent of graduate unemployment. Thereafter, the possible causes were investigated, such as lack of experience, lack of soft skills, skills mismatch, poor quality of education of the graduates, discrimination by employers, etc. Graduate unemployment in India, China and Europe were also considered, and it was found that graduate unemployment was not in a unique problem in South Africa. The study proceeded with an analysis the Statistics South Africa 1995-2010 labour survey data and conducted more up-to-date statistical analyses of the profile of graduate unemployed. The results showed that the characteristics of unemployed graduates were, in general, the same as what was found by the previous studies, as graduate unemployed were more likely to be female and black, aged 15-34 years at the time of the survey, residing in Gauteng, with only post-Matric certificates or diplomas, and graduating from the fields of Business /Commerce / Management, and Education / Training / Development. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition was also applied, and the results indicated that employment discrimination against black graduates was very likely, after controlling for differences in demographic and educational attainment blacks and whites. Hence, the results of the empirical analysis showed that graduate unemployment persists. Finally, graduate employment elasticity coefficients and employment absorption rates were derived by educational attainment category, and the results showed that although graduate unemployment is clearly less serious than unemployment in other educational categories, the labour demand for graduates is not rapid enough to absorb all the graduates.

Please read the abstract in the front matter of this document. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted

Unemployment is a worldwide issue which is one of the toughest challenges that South Africa is facing. It has become a social problem because it has an impact on a large number of people. Unemployment has a serious impact on parents’ dignity and affects his/her emotional and socio-economic status, as he/she cannot function effectively. In the view of the above, the goal of the study was to investigate the influence of unemployment on parenting skills in the Waterberg District of the Limpopo Province. The research question that guided the study was: What is the influence of unemployment on parenting skills in the Waterberg District of the Limpopo Province? A qualitative, explorative research study was conducted, with the following objectives: <ol> <li> To theoretically conceptualize unemployment as a social problem and the family as a social system.</li> <li> To empirically investigate the influence of unemployment on parenting skills in the Waterberg District of the Limpopo Province.</li> <li> To make recommendations, based on the results of the study, regarding strategies to help unemployed parents to enhance their parenting skills.</li> </ol> The population of this study was all the black parents who were at least three years unemployed, who were between the ages of 25 – 50 years, parents who had children of school going age, stayed in an informal settlement in the Waterberg District and who were registered clients of the Department of Health and Social Department (DHSD) during the period January 2003 – June 2006. A sample of 10 respondents was selected by using a combination of stratified and simple random sampling to represent the population. The five sub-district offices in the Waterberg District were regarded as strata and from each stratum two respondents were selected randomly. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews guided by a schedule with a set of predetermined questions. The main conclusions drawn from the research findings were that parents expressed negative feelings about their unemployed situation and that they experienced a lack of certain parenting skills namely: communication, decision making, problem solving and conflict management. Based on the results of the study, recommendations were made regarding strategies to help unemployed parents to enhance their parenting skills. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

This study focused on the experience of involuntary job loss for managers and professionals. Fifteen males and females provided details of their experience through in-depth interviews. The critical incident technique was used as the approach to identify the high points and low points during their term of unemployment. The most frequently reported positive incidents included interviews, positive feedback from others, support of friends, family and counselling, and lack of financial pressures. The negative incidents most frequently reported included leaving the previous employer, rejection, lost role, interviews and lost career opportunities. In addition, the research participants reported shock and relief as the two most frequent responses to the termination. When asked about whether a change in attitude to work had occurred 11 reported some change following termination. The most prominent result of this research points to the experience of unemployment as largely an individual experience, only four categories of critical incidents included incidents reported by more than 50% of the participants interviewed. Counsellors may benefit from this research which provides information particular to this group and which will assist them in determining appropriate counselling techniques and interventions. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Main content of this thesis is analysis of flexicurity and its principles, which became a model for reformation of labour markets and social insurance nets in european region. Other than the research on functioning of flexicurity itself, thesis is focused on czech labour market, social insurance net, its flexibility and its main defections. Thesis also contains considerations on applying of the flexicurity principles in Czech Republic and fulfilling of goals determined by the European union strategies. Closure of the thesis is dedicated to calculations of the price of establishing flexicurity in Czech republic and determination if it is possible to finance it.

Since 1985, the direct job creation efforts of the federal government have been targeted on the long term unemployed, under the Job Development Program, in response to the increased incidence of long term unemployment since the recession. This research was initiated to provide early feedback on a program of individually subsidized jobs, as a demand-side employment initiative targeted on individuals who had been unemployed for approximately six months. The research was a descriptive analysis of the experience of 64 program participants, in an area of Vancouver with a high ethnic population where there is traditionally high unemployment. An experimental, uncontrolled, single group design was used to compare client characteristics as program input, as well as program intervention, agency administration and labour market conditions, to program outcomes. The variable that demonstrated the strongest association with outcome was the relative demand for labour in the local labour market in which the job had been subsidized. There was also evidence from the research that factors within the subsidized job setting may influence the successful re-adaptation of long term unemployed individuals into the work force. The opportunity for career advancement as well as supervision on-the-job that is supportive of the individual who is re-adapting to a work environment, was each positively-correlated with program outcome. While the results were inconclusive for some of the client characteristics measured in the study, others were clearly found to be poor predictors of program success. Targeted job creation strategies like the Individually Subsidized Job program, respond not only to cyclical unemployment but address issues of structural unemployment through the targeting of these employment initiatives on employment disadvantaged groups. Although only tentative judgements can be drawn from the research, it suggests that program administration which is sensitive to labour market conditions, as well as to conditions within the job site itself, may improve the outcome of public employment initiatives. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study was designed to probe the experience of white collar unemployment. Some research results suggest that white collar people have an easier time with unemployment than do blue collar people while other findings suggest the contrary. A questionnaire format instrument was designed to record self-reported changes of an affective and behavioural nature in a sample of 66 white collar and 24 blue collar unemployed adults. It was hypothesized that on the whole, the blue collar sample would report a more difficult response to unemployment than the white collar sample. It was further hypothesized that after an unspecified period of time the unemployed white collar sample would become passive and depressed. Twelve variables focusing on learned helplessness, self-esteem, depression, locus of control, social interaction, time structure, personal meaning and perceived measures of health and finances were recorded and intercorrelated in this relationship study. Correlation matrices were constructed for the general sample, the white collar and the blue collar sub-samples. Reliability and validity coefficients of the instrument were calculated on each variable and were found to be acceptable for the purpose of this study. The relationships among the variables supported the notion that generally, the people in the blue collar unemployed sample experienced more difficulty with unemployment than did those people in the white collar sample. The white collar sample subjects did not, however, show a significant disposition toward passivity and depression as a function of time. Instead, the data suggested the presence of a second white collar subgroup who appeared to be experiencing great personal difficulties regardless of the duration of their unemployment. It was suggested that the appearance of a bi-modal white collar sample was the result of the sampling technique, and further that these results may reflect the state of the real world. This position is offered as a possible justification for the contradictory white collar unemployment findings in the past. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / This research paper is a review of the assertion by some commentators that the regulation of the labour market is a cause of the high unemployment rate in South Africa. It starts by providing a historical background of statutory industrial relations in South Africa leading to the current labour dispensation. The discussion includes a review of the current labour legislation and assessment of its compliance with international law. The rating of the South African labour market by the Doing Business study is discussed. This study seeks to ascertain whether there is a causal relation between labour market regulation and the unemployment rate. The conclusion reached is that South African labour legislation complies wit international law as espoused in International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions, is not excessively rigid and, most importantly, that there is no convincing evidence of a causal relation between labour market regulation and the unemployment rate.

This thesis examines the link between exchange rate and unemployment. The unemployment problem in an open economy has mostly been discussed at the micro level. Previous studies focus on job losses from trade by the manufacturing industries. However, the macro level relationship between exchange rate and unemployment has been largely ignored. The aims of this study are twofold. Firstly, a simple theoretical relationship between exchange rate and unemployment is established by the PPP and Phillips curve. The model shows that, under the linked exchange rate system, the unemployment in currency-linked country is a function of the unemployment in the base country, the changes in the exchange rate, the rate of price change differential between the two countries, and the natural rate of unemployment differential between the two countries. By using Hong Kong data, we find that one percent increase in the U.S. unemployment rate transmits 0.53 percent increase in Hong Kong. Under the floating system, we analyze this problem in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, which predominantly represent Europe. We investigate the magnitude of the transmitted unemployment and the exchange rate impact among those countries before and after the new currency. We find that the transmission effects are significant, which partially explain the severity of this long-lasting problem. To shed new light, we construct a three-sector model comprising goods market, labor market, and money market. We postulate that domestic product market faces import competition. Thus the exchange rate comes into play, intrinsically affecting the labor demand. In the meantime, we extend the standard money demand function by including both the domestic and foreign money balances. We believe that this extension better reflects the reality. We then solve the general equilibrium model to get the reduced-form solution with our focus on the relationship between exchange rate and employment. We find that the exchange rate effect is unconditional in that home currency depreciation benefits employment and alleviates the unemployment problem.