Foreign shops twice as likely to hire locals - study

Studies conducted by the Gauteng City-Region Observatory, including the Quality of Life Survey, released in August last year, give a snapshot of foreign traders' contribution to employment.

Gauteng's unemployment rate declined from 75.6% in 2013 to 73.8% in 2014 this was due to more people giving up on looking for work.

Studies conducted by GCRO showed the following:

-About 65% of business owners interviewed in the province were in the informal sector;

-Of the 628 foreign traders interviewed in  the City of Joburg, 263 provided 1223 jobs. Of these jobs, 503 went to South Africans;

-In Soweto, of the 131 foreigners running businesses interviewed, a total of 224 jobs were created of which 105 were held by South Africans;

-Of the 323 local traders interviewed, they created 275 jobs.  This meant that foreign-owned businesses were twice as likely as South Africans to employ people in their operations;

-About 65% of business owners in Gauteng operated in the informal sector and over 80% of them were South Africans;

-About 32% of foreign business people paid rent to South Africans;

-Most of the foreign-owned businesses used South African wholesalers (41%) and about 27% used factories, while a small portion used supermarkets to buy stock;

-In general, 39% of informal traders used wholesalers, 18% retailers, 17% factories, 15% used the markets and 3% use farms.