SamatData

The ILO/SAMAT database on employment and labour in the SADC countries – SamatData – was set up to serve three purposes:

• to facilitate access to existing data for SAMAT staff, ILO constituents and other users;

• to acquire detailed knowledge of data gaps and of the quality, consistency, comparability and sources as a foundation for efforts to assist constituents in establishing or upgrading their labour market information systems; and

• to enable SAMAT to monitor and analyse labour market developments in the sub-region on a regular basis.

The database covers all Member States of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which comprise the nine countries covered by SAMAT, namely, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritius, the Seychelles and the United Republic of Tanzania. The database includes annual data from 1980 onwards.

The developmental phase of SamatData is now complete and data are being regularly added and updated. The existing data can now be accessed on the SAMAT website. Ministries of Labour in the sub-region are being encouraged to set up similar databases at the national level, if they don’t already exist.

The indicators in the database currently comprise eight categories relating to: 

• Population and active population

• Employment and work (labour utilisation)

• Unemployment and underemployment (labour under-utilisation)

• Workers’ pay and income; prices (remuneration of labour)

• Literacy and educational profiles (quality of labour)

• Tripartism (membership of workers’ organisations)

• Industrial action (strikes and lockouts)

• Other relevant variables/indicators

Data are extracted from sources available to SAMAT rather than through questionnaires sent to data-producing agencies. Also used are existing databases of international agencies as well as various types of secondary material.

Enter SAMAT Data