REVENUE SERVICE DATA
Doubts cast on role of small business in creating jobs
The small business sector’s contribution to job creation in SA has been grossly overestimated, claims an economics professor who has produced new data suggesting that there has been a hollowing out of employment by small companies in recent years. University of Stellenbosch economics professor Neil Rankin says companies with 50 or fewer employees could account for less than half the employment share than is commonly believed. Using South African Revenue Service data from the 13.4-million IRP5 certificates filed in the 2015 tax year, Rankin says these companies contributed just 21% of formal sector jobs. In contrast, in the first quarter of 2015, the Statistics SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey pegs the contribution of such small companies at 59% of the 14.2-million jobs (excluding those in private households) and 47% of formal sector jobs. Statistician-general Pali Lehohla concedes that the survey — which the Department of Small Business Development uses to estimate the employment co...
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