Blaauw, Phillip (Derick)Louw, HumaSchenck, Catherina (Rinie)2013-06-252013-06-252006Blaauw, P., et al. (2006). The employment history of day labourers in South Africa and the income they earn - a case study of day labourers in Pretoria. South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, 9 (4): 458 - 4711015-8812http://hdl.handle.net/10566/651Introduction: With the opening up of the South African economy, following its successful democratisation and adherence to a strict programme of trade liberalisation, the number of highly-skilled (professionals, managers and technicians) persons employed showed strong growth, while the number of less skilled persons in employment declined (Whiteford & van Seventer, 1999: 3). Unemployment remains one of the major macroeconomic problems facing this country. The official unemployment rate in September 2005 was 26,7 per cent (Statistics South Africa, 2006a: iv). In spite of the recent positive news on the unemployment front, the foreseeable future is evidenced by large numbers of unemployed people.en© 2006 Blaauw, et al; licensee University of Pretoria. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Day labourersInformal sectorUnemploymentArticle