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. 2021 Feb 5;89(1):44–62. doi: 10.1111/saje.12283

Table 7.

Probability of employment loss/gain between Feb. and April: By demographic groups and various definitions of employment (%)

Group Conventional Alternate 2
Pr(Gain) Pr(Loss) Pr(Gain) Pr(Loss)
Overall 13.18 25.55 6.98 39.05
Female 8.78 30.38 4.54 44.30
Male 19.61 21.34 10.56 34.47
African/Black 13.52 27.85 7.00 42.77
Coloured 11.16 23.11 5.29 33.30
Asian/Indian 0.00 26.63 0.00 39.88
White 18.56 10.90 15.45 17.40
Traditional 15.72 32.40 9.63 47.55
Urban 12.34 24.77 5.98 37.70
Farms 19.34 22.10 15.57 44.62
Youth(18‐29) 11.47 31.24 6.14 42.96
Prime(30‐49) 17.61 23.20 9.38 37.08
Older(50‐59) 6.88 24.91 3.34 40.12
<matric 12.55 30.03 7.49 45.54
matric 10.81 31.10 4.98 42.81
matric+ 18.26 16.18 8.32 28.66

The changes are all relative to employment status in February, which uses the conventional definition of employment. Conventionally, people who are temporarily absent from work are classified as employed. "Alternative ‐ definition 2" excludes “absentees” and well as people who said they were employed, but worked 0 hours and earned no wage income. A similar adaptation of the employment variable for February, to the one that we have implemented for April, is not possible given the data.

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