Manpower Survey¶
The single richest employment dataset in the archive: 165,583 rows covering employment by sector, occupation, race, and gender for 1965-1994 — the entire apartheid period.
Unit of Observation¶
Each row is a (sector, occupation, year) combination with employment counts broken down by race and gender.
File¶
| File | Rows | Description |
|---|---|---|
manpower_survey/manpower_survey_1965_1994.csv |
165,583 | Full panel |
Variables¶
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
year |
Year (65-94, i.e. 1965-1994) |
sector |
Economic sector (39 unique) |
occupation |
Occupational category (754 unique) |
white_men |
White male employment count |
white_women |
White female employment count |
coloured_men |
Coloured male employment count |
coloured_women |
Coloured female employment count |
Indian_men |
Indian male employment count |
Indian_women |
Indian female employment count |
black_men |
Black male employment count |
black_women |
Black female employment count |
vacancies |
Vacancy count |
Research Applications¶
- Labor market segmentation: Which sectors reserved jobs for whites? How did this change?
- Structural transformation: Shift from mining/agriculture to manufacturing/services
- Racial employment gaps: Trends in black employment access by sector and skill level
- Job reservation erosion: When did racial barriers break down in specific occupations?
Geographic Note¶
This dataset has no geographic disaggregation — it is national-level data by sector and occupation. It cannot be joined to the district panel. Use it for national-level time series.
Provenance¶
- Source: South African Manpower Survey, Department of Manpower / Central Statistical Service
- Original format: Stata .dta file
- Converted to CSV: 2026-03-28