Stats SA has published the latest results from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for the third quarter of the year, showing a continuous decline in the number of domestic workers with jobs in the country.
While the overall picture for jobs in South Africa is slightly better, with the unemployment rate declining from 33,9% in Q2 to 32,9% in Q3, the picture for domestic workers has darkened.
The stats body recorded a drop of 32 000 domestic workers in the country over the period with a total of 826 000 domestic worker jobs in Q3.
This is down 3,7% from 858 000 domestic workers in Q2 and down 3,5% from the same quarter last year.
South Africa has historically had around 1 million domestic workers employed in the country, but this took a massive knock in 2020 following the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. Around 250 000 domestic workers lost their jobs in the quarter following the lockdown before recovering in subsequent quarters.
As with most job sectors, however, domestic workers have struggled to reach the levels seen pre-Covid, with around 180 000 jobs in the sector still lost.
The continued loss of domestic worker jobs in the country is reflective of the strain households – mainly middle-class households – are under in South Africa, as domestic help is often cited as one of the first expenses cut during times of financial pressure.
Domestic worker jobs are also being affected by other factors, including employers leaving the country.
Data published by SweepSouth in August 2022 showed the devastating impact of emigration and semigration on domestic workers.
A quarter of the respondents in the SweepSouth survey said they had lost their job in the last year. Of these workers more than a quarter (28%) of domestic workers said they lost their job because their employer had moved: 33% of the employers moved to a different town or city in South Africa, while nearly half (48%) moved to another country.
