Today’s post shows that one’s assessment of whether purchasing power in the economy has kept up with consumer inflation depends on the measure of wages one uses.
Different sources of labour market information paint different pictures of long term developments in average wages in South Africa. Average growth in wages for the total economy is much faster when measured using Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) gross earnings compared to Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) employment levels.
The QLFS provides both formal and informal employment, including agricultural workers, although we use only formal sector employees in the post for consistency with national accounts based compensation estimates. The QES is based on a survey of non-agricultural firms, excludes the self-employed, and includes only workers that are paid.
