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(1) Background: Labor market outcomes can be directly or indirectly influenced by the health behavior patterns of the labor force. This study assesses the association between patterns of physical activity and smoking behavior maintenance (and their transitions) and the labor market outcomes of employment participation and formal employment participation. (2) Methods: The sample evaluated in this study comprises adult individuals aged 18 and above from wave 5 of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, a chi-square test, and bivariate probit regression techniques. (3) Results: The bivariate probit regression results regarding the impact of health behavior transition and maintenance patterns on labor market outcomes show that transitioning to physically active behavior or maintaining physically active behavior increases the likelihood of participating in the labor market and being employed in the formal sector compared to those ceasing to be physically active over time. Surprisingly, both the maintenance and uptake of smoking behavior increases the probability of the occurrence of both labor market outcome variables. (4) Conclusions: These findings have both explicit and implicit implications that can serve to increase labor force participation probability and to promote healthy behavior. There is a need for community-wide campaigns via promotions and media coverage to promote active physical activity among the labor force group. Also, interventions to support individuals who lack extensive social networks is necessary. The results further highlight the importance of education, rural economic development, and good health status for desirable labor market outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate how means-tested public pensions interact with the informal sector, by exploiting a reform in the noncontributory old-age pension system in South Africa, where the eligibility age was lowered from 65 to 60 for men. By employing a difference-in-discontinuities ("diff-in-disc") approach, we show that this reform triggered a large drop in elderly male employment. The response at the extensive margin comes from informal workers, who drop out of the labor force, while formal employment is mostly unaffected, despite the implicit incentive to draw benefits and simultaneously work informal jobs. This heterogeneity is not due to the lower earnings in informal jobs; at the same level of hourly earnings, informal workers drop out, while formal workers do not. Overall, we argue that this response is indicative of the "subsistence" nature of informal employment in South Africa, in particular, among the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resumen: En el presente artículo se examina cómo han evolucionado las funciones reguladoras de la legislación laboral en la región de la Comunidad de África Meridional para el Desarrollo (SADC) y se señalan casos de segmentación legal del mercado de trabajo. Los autores explican las características demográficas de la economía informal en los Estados miembros de la SADC y concluyen que, a pesar de la constitucionalización del derecho del trabajo, los mecanismos de legislación laboral de la región contribuyen sustancialmente a la segmentación legal de la economía. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pre-Covid-19 world of work was rife with inequalities and difficulties, with more than 40 per cent of working-age South Africans unemployed. The majority of those in employment were barely able to eke out a living - between 20 per cent to 30 per cent were working in the informal economy, mostly without labour rights and social protection and earning low incomes that trapped them in poverty. The precarious nature of the South African labour market before the Covid-19 pandemic was characterised by casualisation, informalisation, and externalisation of work. This resulted in the reduction of the number of workers employed for definite periods and rising levels of precarious workers. This article investigates the precarious nature of work and the various work paradigms present in the South African labour market before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. New challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and new forms of work in the South African labour market are also considered, together with measures taken to address precarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare conditions in informal day-labor markets in South Africa and the USA to better understand the nature of worker vulnerabilities in this market, as well as the economic conditions that have contributed to the growth of day labor. The conclusion considers interventions that are underway in the two countries to improve conditions in day-labor markets. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on national surveys of day laborers in South Africa and the USA. A random sample of day laborers seeking work at informal hiring sites was undertaken in each country. The paper presents key findings, compares conditions in South Africa and the USA, and analyzes the relationship between economic change, labor-market dynamics, and worker vulnerability. Findings – Day-labor work is characterized by low pay, hazardous conditions on the job, and tremendous income insecurity. The day-labor markets in South Africa and the USA perform somewhat different functions within regional economies. Within South Africa, day labor can be regarded as a survival strategy. The growth of day labor in South Africa over the past decade is a manifestation of a formal labor market that is incapable of absorbing the structurally unemployed. Here, day labor is the employment of last resort, allowing workers to subsist on the fringes of the mainstream economy, but offering few pathways into the formal sector. In the USA, the day labor workforce is a largely undocumented-immigrant workforce. Workers seek work at informal hiring sites, maintaining a tenuous hold on jobs in the construction industry. There is evidence of some mobility into more stable and better paying employment. Practical implications – This paper documents the need for policies and programs to increase employment opportunities for day laborers and to better enforce labor standards in the informal economy. Originality/value – This paper summarizes findings from the only two national surveys of day laborers that have been conducted, and it compares for the first time the dynamic within growing day-labor markets in a developed- and emerging-market context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]