Compared to the public sector, the private in South Africa employs a higher proportion of semi- and unskilled workers. According to the Commission for Employment Equity, government and state owned entities employ a higher proportion of professionally qualified and skilled employees.
For the workforce as a whole, skilled and semi-skilled workers represent 25% and 35% of the workforce, respectively, while unskilled and temporary workers account for 20% and 10% each. Professionally qualified, senior management and top management represent 10%, 2% and 1% each. The shares of the professionally qualified and skilled categories have risen slightly (by about 3 percentage points each since 2002), while they fell for unskilled and temporary workers.
