Current Population Survey

Literature › Primary sources

Kind	household or labour survey microdata
Producer	Department of Statistics / Central Statistical Service
Coverage	1977-1987
Works using it	8

Project holdings

The project holds this source in part. See Population & Demographics.

Debates

Debate	Works
Agricultural policy, productivity, farm size and land reform	2
Farm labour: mechanisation, labour shedding, wages and labour control	2
Data reliability and econometric method	2
Unemployment: causes, measurement and labour market institutions	2
Black trade unions: growth, wage effects, Wiehahn and strategy	2
Racial wage gaps, wage convergence and wage determination	2
Education, Bantu Education and skills	1
Homelands, separate development, decentralisation and removals	1

Works using this source

Work	As cited	Period	How used
Bell and Padayachee (1984)	Current Population Survey (as used in Simkins 1982) and 1980 Population Census	to 1980	Only mentioned in the title of Simkins' 1982 revision; the CPS gives lower unemployment levels than Simkins' estimates, a point noted but not analysed.
Bendix (1989)	Central Statistical Services, Current Population Survey (CPS) unemployment figures	1987	Provides strict/expanded/underemployment unemployment rates, from which total unemployment of about 25 per cent is derived.
Bromberger (1978)	Current Population Survey (CPS) - Bantu, October 1977, Statistical News Release P.27 (31 January 1978)	October 1977	Supplies the first direct official measure of African unemployment (634 000; 12,4% of the economically active), used to frame the problem and its definitions.
Frost (1993)	CSS Current Population Survey (CPS) unemployment and workers-by-industry data	1980s	Discussed and rejected as unreliable for unemployment and employment-by-industry; used only as rough guide for unemployment trends.
Moll (1993b)	Current Population Survey (CPS) of South Africa 1979-1982	1979-1982	The only South African data set containing hours; unreported comparison regressions are used to argue that the lack of an hours variable in the census does not drive the results.
Moll (1996b)	Current Population Survey (CPS) of May 1980 (1979-82 survey)	1979-82 (May 1980 round used)	Provides a second 1980 estimate of the African primary schooling effect (0.034) for cross-checking against the census.
Simkins (1984a)	Current Population Survey, March 1980 (rural African labour force participation rates)	March 1980	Source of the age-specific participation rates (Table 2) used to turn population estimates into a labour supply curve.
Simkins (1984b)	Current Population Survey, rural African labour force participation rates, March 1980 (via Simkins, The Context of African Unemployment, Table 12)	March 1980	Starting point for participation rates used to construct historical on-farm labour supply curve.