M.Com. (Economics) / The motivation for this study has its origin in the observation that informal sector activities in South Africa had increased significantly since the nineteen-eighties. The initial interest was stimulated by the desire to discover more about the nature and extent of the informal sector, as well as the effects it is having on employment, income generation, policy making and general economic equilibrium. Investigating the occurrence of informal sector activities in the developed countries, the centrally directed economies and the Third World countries led to the conclusion that the different definitions for informal sector activities, the nature of such activities and the reasons why people become involved in such activities, differ from country to country. In South Africa it was observed that the formal sector's inability to create sufficient employment opportunities for all its citizens led to more and more people joining the informal sector. As far as the nature of the informal sector is concerned it was found that a variety of economic activities are being carried out, the most important being trade and hawking. The highest concentration of participants were found in the Natal/KwaZulu area. Marginally more male than female participants were involved in this sector. Most participants were younger than 40 years of age. Participants worked long hours and frequently have to provide a service for seven days a week. Most undertakings were operated solely by the participant or with the assistance of family members, employees are only employed in exceptional cases. participants experienced great problems in obtaining finance and appropriate accommodation. Little research had been done so far to identify and quantify the involvement of Whites in the informal sector...
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:13364 |
| Date | 25 February 2015 |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Johannesburg |
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