{"id":860201,"date":"2026-05-12T16:40:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=860201"},"modified":"2026-05-12T16:40:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:40:52","slug":"bad-news-for-domestic-workers-in-south-africa-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/860201\/bad-news-for-domestic-workers-in-south-africa-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad news for domestic workers in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The latest employment data from Stats SA show that domestic worker jobs in the country have declined by 1.2% over the past quarter, resulting in the loss of 10,000 jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for Q1 2026 shows that unemployment rose significantly in the last quarter, with over 300,000 people joining the ranks of the unemployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026, seven of the ten industries saw significant job losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The largest decreases in employment were recorded in the Community and social services industry (206,000), followed by Construction (110,000), Transport (30,000) and Private households (28,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employment increased in only three sectors: Manufacturing (38,000), followed by Mining (32,000) and Agriculture (10,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, the loss of 28,000 jobs at private households stands out, as these are the primary employers of domestic workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among domestic workers, 10,000 jobs were lost, bringing the total to around 844,000 positions nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One upside to the data is that the picture is somewhat brighter when looking at year-on-year numbers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026, domestic worker jobs increased 3.2%, showing a relatively healthier position from 818,000 positions a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this comes with the caveat that domestic worker jobs are still among the few sectors in the country that have not recovered from the lows of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put another way, job numbers in the sector would have to increase 17% just to reach pre-COVID levels, something that hasn’t been achievable in the three or so years since the pandemic ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracking the jobs data over that period, domestic worker positions haven\u2019t moved higher than the 880,000 mark in almost four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reflects a permanent loss of around 150,000 domestic worker jobs nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pre-pandemic (Q4 2019), figures fluctuated around 1 million domestic workers. When factoring in the seasonal variations and potential base, groups like SweepSouth put the figure closer to 1.2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Various reasons and explanations have been given to account for this, from strained household finances to emigration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Domestic workers are in crisis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The latest employment data follows pleas during the Workers’ Day celebrations on 1 May for better working conditions and better representation for domestic workers in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to the SABC<\/strong><\/a>, two of the only domestic worker unions<\/strong><\/a> in the country flagged poor conditions for these workers, despite the government’s concerted efforts to formalise and improve the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the unions, there are approximately 1 million domestic workers in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This figure deviated from official Stats SA data, but they said this is because many workers are informal and “exist in the shadows” of the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this, many workers simply cannot benefit from government initiatives to include their jobs in formal protections such as the Compensation Fund and the Unemployment Insurance Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even among more formal workers, some of these benefits escape them, with the unions adding that only 2% of domestic workers are represented by structured bodies and organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employers are also hesitant to formalise their work through proper contracts, wanting to avoid the administrative burdens that come with doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, only an estimated 20% to 30% of workers are registered for UIF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strain on private households over the past few years has also severely impacted domestic workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pinky Mashiane, the founder and president of the United Domestic Workers of South Africa (UDOWSA), said that approximately 20% of domestic workers lost their jobs in the 2023\u20132024 period due to economic pressures facing households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who remained employed are subject to non-living wages, with many not even earning the National Minimum Wage of R30.23 per hour, the unions said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of protections, representation, formal employment and low wages all combine to make this class of worker exceptionally vulnerable to abuse, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unions said that the government needs to ramp up enforcement of the country’s labour laws to protect domestic workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, almost more importantly, they said there needs to be a cultural shift among employers and households to view domestic workers with equality and humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would encourage employers to provide domestic workers with the same treatment and standards in their homes that they would expect in their own professional workplaces, they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Domestic worker jobs in the country have once again declined, with unions flagging ongoing issues with pay, protections and ill treatment by employers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":834830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[10550,1809],"class_list":["post-860201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-domestic-worker","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860251,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860201\/revisions\/860251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}