Johannesburg - The good news is that about 400 000 more households now earn a middle class income.
The bad news, however, is that immigrants from neighbouring countries are helping increase the number of households living beneath the breadline in South Africa.
According to the latest survey on household income and expenditure conducted by the University of South Africa's Bureau of Market Research (BMR), the South African economy is struggling to create enough work for the thousands entering the labour market every year.
The report also said the proportion of people in the lowest income group able to migrate to a higher group between 2007 and 2008 totalled a mere 3.6%.
Officially the lowest income group includes all households earning up to R50 000 a year, most of whom are struggling to keep their heads above water.
The BMR's Carel van Aardt says another survey has found that about 47% of the population is living below the breadline.
The bureau's definition of the sustainability level differs from that of the government and other institutions, which define it using a specific amount.
"A single amount makes no sense, because a person living in a rural area can survive on far less than one in the city," he says.
The definition of people living under the breadline refers to those whose expenditure on basic necessities exceeds their income - in other words, people whose income cannot provide for their basic needs.
This does not mean that people cannot manage to improve their living standards.
The number of households in the group earning R50 000 to R100 000 increased by 5.2% in 2008, those earning R100 000 to R300 000 by 7.5% and those earning R300 000 to R500 000 by 17.1%, the BMR said.
Numbers of households earning more than R500 000 were 13.2% up, and the "wealthy" families earning more than R750 000 up by a massive 27.7%, it said.
In fact, last year there were 5 236 839 households in the aspirant middle class (R50 000 to R300 000), 410 475 up on the year before.
And the 684 416 households in the middle class (R300 000 to R500 000) were almost 100 000 more than in 2007.
If the middle class increased by more than half a million households in one year, one wonders why those in the lowest income group declined by only 250 000 to 6 899 591.
Van Aardt says this is owing to the economy's inability to absorb millions of new entrants, including immigrants from the neighbouring countries, into the labour market.
A real difference can be made to the problem of poverty only if job creation is driven forcefully.
Before the international crisis brought the South African economy into recession, the economy had been growing strongly, yet the country was still unable to make a significant dent in the numbers of the poor.
Van Aardt ascribes this, among other things, to South Africa's skills shortage, which results in an inability to absorb workers into the modern knowledge economy.
Apart from other measures to promote economic growth, government needs to overhaul the country's education system in order to produce more suitable candidates for the workplace.
"And the immigration policy will also have to be considerably improved because millions of immigrants streaming into the country not only compete with the local population for jobs, but their presence places enormous pressure on state coffers to fund additional services
The bad news, however, is that immigrants from neighbouring countries are helping increase the number of households living beneath the breadline in South Africa.
According to the latest survey on household income and expenditure conducted by the University of South Africa's Bureau of Market Research (BMR), the South African economy is struggling to create enough work for the thousands entering the labour market every year.
The report also said the proportion of people in the lowest income group able to migrate to a higher group between 2007 and 2008 totalled a mere 3.6%.
Officially the lowest income group includes all households earning up to R50 000 a year, most of whom are struggling to keep their heads above water.
The BMR's Carel van Aardt says another survey has found that about 47% of the population is living below the breadline.
The bureau's definition of the sustainability level differs from that of the government and other institutions, which define it using a specific amount.
"A single amount makes no sense, because a person living in a rural area can survive on far less than one in the city," he says.
The definition of people living under the breadline refers to those whose expenditure on basic necessities exceeds their income - in other words, people whose income cannot provide for their basic needs.
This does not mean that people cannot manage to improve their living standards.
The number of households in the group earning R50 000 to R100 000 increased by 5.2% in 2008, those earning R100 000 to R300 000 by 7.5% and those earning R300 000 to R500 000 by 17.1%, the BMR said.
Numbers of households earning more than R500 000 were 13.2% up, and the "wealthy" families earning more than R750 000 up by a massive 27.7%, it said.
In fact, last year there were 5 236 839 households in the aspirant middle class (R50 000 to R300 000), 410 475 up on the year before.
And the 684 416 households in the middle class (R300 000 to R500 000) were almost 100 000 more than in 2007.
If the middle class increased by more than half a million households in one year, one wonders why those in the lowest income group declined by only 250 000 to 6 899 591.
Van Aardt says this is owing to the economy's inability to absorb millions of new entrants, including immigrants from the neighbouring countries, into the labour market.
A real difference can be made to the problem of poverty only if job creation is driven forcefully.
Before the international crisis brought the South African economy into recession, the economy had been growing strongly, yet the country was still unable to make a significant dent in the numbers of the poor.
Van Aardt ascribes this, among other things, to South Africa's skills shortage, which results in an inability to absorb workers into the modern knowledge economy.
Apart from other measures to promote economic growth, government needs to overhaul the country's education system in order to produce more suitable candidates for the workplace.
"And the immigration policy will also have to be considerably improved because millions of immigrants streaming into the country not only compete with the local population for jobs, but their presence places enormous pressure on state coffers to fund additional services
