{"id":869740,"date":"2026-08-11T16:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T14:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=869740"},"modified":"2026-08-11T16:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T14:43:15","slug":"worst-news-in-6-years-for-domestic-workers-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/869740\/worst-news-in-6-years-for-domestic-workers-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Worst news in 6 years 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 continued to decline, dropping another 1.6% over the past quarter\u2014a loss of 14,000 jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) for Q2 2026 shows that unemployment rose significantly in the last quarter, with over 345,000 people joining the ranks of the unemployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between Q1 2026 and Q2 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 (57,000), followed by the Mining industry (26,000), Agriculture and Manufacturing (15,000 each), and Utilities (10,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, private households recorded a loss of 9,000 jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among domestic workers, 14,000 jobs were lost, indicating broad-based losses beyond private households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Stats SA, there were 831,000 domestic workers employed at the end of the quarter, down 1.6% from 844,000 at the end of Q1, and down 1.0% from the 839,000 employed in Q2 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This represents the worst Q2 data for the sector since Q2 2020, after the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and hard lockdowns set in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year<\/th>Domestic workers employed<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Q2 2019<\/td>985,000<\/td><\/tr>
Q2 2020<\/td>745,000<\/td><\/tr>
Q2 2021<\/td>892,000<\/td><\/tr>
Q2 2022<\/td>858,000<\/td><\/tr>
Q2 2023<\/td>844,000<\/td><\/tr>
Q2 2024<\/td>843,000<\/td><\/tr>
Q2 2025<\/td>839,000<\/td><\/tr>
Q2 2026<\/strong><\/td>831,000<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Domestic worker jobs had their worst second quarter since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The latest figures show little to no change in the permanent loss of hundreds of thousands of domestic worker positions since 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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 approximately 150,000 tracked 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

The loss of domestic worker jobs has been attributed to financial hardships experienced by households\u2014who cut domestic help to save money\u2014emigration, and now the latest culprit: xenophobic attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Domestic workers chased out of South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Following a rise in anti-foreign national sentiment at best, and xenophobic violence at worst, thousands of migrant workers have fled South Africa back to their home countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\u00a0Bloomberg report<\/a>\u00a0in July noted that authorities had processed about 67,000 migrants for deportation or voluntary repatriation in recent months, following mass protests against illegal foreign nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some government officials had questioned the numbers, the Department of Home Affairs confirmed to Parliament on Tuesday (11 August) that 82,875 people had been deported or repatriated by the close of business on 6 August 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, only 16,078 of these had been processed between April and June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, domestic worker platform SweepSouth said it recorded the highest cancellation rate since the pandemic from those offering their services during this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with delivery drivers, construction workers and waiters, many migrant workers from other countries get gainful employment as domestic workers in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of these positions are filled by illegal workers. For domestic workers specifically, this is made possible by low levels of formalisation in the sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the sector is now recognised under the health and safety COID Act, the Compensation Fund, and the Unemployment Insurance Fund, only an estimated 20% to 30% of workers are registered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domestic workers also qualify for the National Minimum Wage, but surveys have shown that many still earn far below this, operating informally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The informal nature of the sector is fed from both sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employers are hesitant to formalise their workers and register with government funds to avoid the higher costs and administrative fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domestic workers, meanwhile, can either avoid the scrutiny of needing a work permit or, as has been raised in recent months, can continue to claim SASSA benefits while also receiving wages<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All households employing domestic workers are required by law to ensure their employees have valid permits and are authorised to work; enforcement is directed at larger companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New laws are currently being processed to boost enforcement and better regulate the hiring of foreign nationals, and President Cyril Ramaphosa has outlined plans to hire thousands more inspectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Households have been warned that penalties starting at R100,000 per illegal worker could be doled out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Domestic worker jobs are at their lowest Q2 levels since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":869774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2087188302319239198","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2173176973502702","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17976460770108775","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[9208,16476,1809],"class_list":["post-869740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-domestic-workers","tag-qlfs","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869740","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\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869775,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869740\/revisions\/869775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}