Bad news for domestic workers in South Africa
The 2024 Old Mutual Savings and Investment Monitor (OMSIM) shows that domestic worker jobs in South Africa are at risk, with households still cutting down on domestic help to better manage their budgets.
The OMSIM study looks at employed South Africans aged 18 to 65, earning a personal monthly income of R8,000+ who make up about 24% of the nation’s adult population.
The study is rooted in a representative survey of over 1,500 working South Africans, where more than half have a personal monthly income below R25,000, representing the median.
The results reflect the financial habits of South Africa’s broad middle class, which typically employs domestic workers in the country.
While the study shows that South African households are generally more positive about their financial prospects and find themselves on more stable footing when it comes to debt and saving, cutting costs remains one of the biggest measures taken to maintain this.
Old Mutual noted that in addition to making positive trade-offs in their finances, stretching income and cutting expenses—and using “value hacking” tools—are a big part of the turn in sentiment.
Compared to 2023, the group noted “hints of recovery” with the pause on major expenses, switching to cheaper TV streaming options and switching to cheaper brands has eased.
However, while cost-cutting has eased, it is by no means over.
- 32% are still switching to cheaper streaming options
- 30% are switching to cheaper supermarket brands
- 29% are cutting down on domestic help
- 27% are cutting down their cellphone or data options
- 26% are cutting gym subscriptions
- 22% are putting major purchases on hold
- 22% are opting to maintain rather than replace big items
- 15% are cashing in investments early
- 14% are downgrading rented property
- 13% are moving their children to less expensive schools
- 12% are selling or trading down their vehicles
Among all these measures, a notable 29% of households have indicated that they are cutting down on domestic help.
While this is down from 33% of households in 2023, it shows that there is a continued trend of domestic worker jobs being cut down to ease financial pressures.
These figures also reflect official employment data and industry reports.
According to SweepSouth’s 2024 Domestic Worker report, 21% of domestic workers report having lost their job in the last year.
The percentage of those who lost their jobs because their employer could no longer afford to pay them remained stable from the previous annual surveys (25% in 2024 compared to 25% in 2023 and 24% in 2022).
There was a slight drop in the percentage who lost their jobs because their employer moved home, although still a significant increase over the previous year (34% in 2024 compared to 40% in 2023 and 25% in 2022), SweepSouth noted.
The pressure domestic workers face from households being unable to hire them is also clearly visible in the latest data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, which shows that domestic worker jobs are also in decline.
According to Stats SA, 23,000 domestic worker jobs were lost in the second quarter of 2024 (April to June), taking the total number of workers employed to 843,000.
This is a 3% drop in employment in the sector.
Adding to the pain for domestic workers, there was also a year-on-year decline in the number of employed, though this was a much smaller loss of 1,000 workers—a drop of 0.1%.
The worrying detail in the data is that South Africa is still employing about 150,000 fewer domestic workers than before the Covid-19 pandemic at the start of 2020.
This has been the case for the last four years, with the country unable to recover to pre-pandemic levels, representing a likely permanent loss of jobs in the sector.
Pre-Covid-19, South Africa employed over 1 million domestic workers. Industry reports pointed to around 250,000 domestic workers losing their jobs during the pandemic.
By the end of 2023, only around 125,000 of those jobs had been recovered—a 50% recovery rate.
The latest employment data has further dented this, meaning around 161,000 domestic worker jobs are still lost, and total employment is still around 16% lower than pre-pandemic levels.
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