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Employment in the Service Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Myron Frankman  and
Edwin Charle
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Extract

One characteristic which all countries presently hold in common — whatever their level of income — is the tendency for a growing proportion of the population to be employed in the ‘service sector’ of their economies rather than in ‘secondary’ or industrial activities. The purpose of this short article is to suggest that a consideration of certain features of the expanding employment in services in low-income countries may help to evaluate two commonly identified situations. First, in regard to manufacturing activities there has been a persistent tendency towards increasing capital intensity, despite the frequent assertion that resort should be made to more labour intensive technology in order to ‘spread’ jobs more widely. Secondly, the pace of urbanisation has continued to accelerate, despite widespread concern over high rates of urban unemployment and under-employment that seem a consequence of excessive migration to the cities.

Type
Africana
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 1973 , pp. 201 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

Page 202 note 1 See Economic Commission for Africa, Demographic Handbook for Africa (Addis Ababa, 1968),Google Scholar and United Nations, Demographic Yearbook, 1970 (New York, 1971).Google Scholar

Page 202 note 2 International Labour Office, Yearbook of Labour Statistics, 1971 (Geneva, 1972).Google Scholar The 4–9 per cent range includes Angola, Gabon, Liberia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Zaire. Data for five other countries were available: Botswana, Ivory Coast, and Niger, less than 4 per cent; Ghana, 11 per cent; and South Africa, 22 per cent.

Page 202 note 3 On the other hand, annual increases in mine employment of about 5 per cent took place in Gabon, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone; ibid.

Page 202 note 4 E.g. Elkan, Walter, ‘An African Labour Force’, in East African Studies (Kampala, 1956),Google Scholar no. 7; Baryaruha, Azarias, Factors Affecting Industrial Employment (Nairobi, 1967)Google Scholar; and Frank, C. R. Jr., ‘Urban Unemployment and Economic Growth in Africa’, in Oxford Economic Papers (Oxford), XX, 1968.Google Scholar

Page 202 note 5 Index numbers for production and employment in manufacturing for six sub-Saharan countries are given in the Statistical Bulletin for Africa (Addis Ababa), 1967, II, pt. 2, pp. 162–4Google Scholar. Only in Ethiopia, during 1955–62, is employment shown to have grown faster than production, by about 10 per cent; in the other five countries, production grew faster than employment, by factors varying from 2 to 150.

Page 203 note 1 See Rosenberg, Nathan, ‘The Direction of Technological Change: inducement mechanisms and focusing devices’, in Economic Development and Cultural Change (Chicago), XVIII, 1969, p. 17.Google Scholar

Page 203 note 2 The growth of importance of trade and other services is, in part, a statistical phenomenon, quantifying a shift from partial to complete specialisation in this area.

Page 204 note 1 See Bauer, P. T., West African Trade (Cambridge, 1954), ch. 2Google Scholar; Bohannan, Paul and Dalton, George (eds.), Markets in Africa (Evanston, 1962),Google Scholar especially the articles by Claudine, and Tardits, C., Mukwaya, A. B., and McCall, D.; and Hunter, Guy, The New Societies of Tropical Africa (New York and London, 1964), pp. 132–42.Google Scholar

Page 204 note 2 Ibid. See also Lloyd, P. C., Africa in Social Change (Baltimore and Harmondsworth, 1967), p. 124Google Scholar; and Jones, William O., ‘Farmers and Traders: who does what to whom?’, in Africa Report (Washington), XVI, 3, 1971.Google Scholar

Page 204 note 3 Several studies have noted a high propensity to consume on the part of new town residents, and a resulting low investment potential: e.g. Southall, Aidan W. and Gutkind, Peter C. W., Townsmen in the Making (Kampala, 1957),Google Scholar and Leslie, J. A. K., A Survey of Dar es Salaam (London, 1963).Google Scholar Arabs, Indians, Lebanese, and other ethnic minority groups are notably successful traders, characterised by a high propensity to save.

Page 205 note 1 See Callaway, Archibald, ‘Continuing Education for Africa's School Leavers: the indigenous apprenticeship system’, in Bulletin of Inter-African Labour Institute (Bamako), XII, I, 1965, p. 61.Google Scholar

Page 205 note 2 Yearbook of Labour Statistics, 1971.

Page 207 note 1 As suggested by Hirschman, Albert O., The Strategy of Economic Development (New Haven, 1958), ch. 1.Google Scholar