Regional dynamics

Focus areas

	Evidence-based employment scenarios		Employment monitoring
	Macro-economy, economic bias & employment		Employment-oriented industry studies
	The informal economy		Government employment creation programmes
	Labour markets and social policy		Migration
	Regional dynamics		Social dialogue
	Employment policy network		Food Security, Agriculture and Rural Development

South Africa is becoming increasingly integrated into the SADC region. This has important implications for employment and growth issues.

There has been a long colonial history of labour market integration, through agriculture and the mines. Increasingly, these movements are of a commercial nature, whether formal or informal. These movements can be very beneficial to both South Africa and other African countries, as a way of promoting growth through trade and investment. There is another side: other southern African countries are far poorer, making SA an attractive destination for underemployed workers.

There are also important investment linkages through the continent. SA is now the largest foreign direct investor on the continent. Other African economies are now the most important source of growth for SA's higher value-added goods and services. Therefore growth and employment in SA will partly depend on growth in the wider region.
 
Past Projects

• The role of powerhouse economies in regional development

Planned projects

Some of the research questions posed will include:
How is labour migration to and from South Africa changing? What are the respective impacts of domestic factors such as HIV, versus global factors? What implications will African labour migration have on SA's growth and employment objectives? This migration could be stimulatory and/or displacing.
What are the growth expectations for SA's key trading and investment partners on the continent? What are the opportunities and threats to further regional integration? How might this impact on SA growth and employment?

This project area will work in cooperation with the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC).