Department of Employment says it failed to achieve job creation target

The Department of Employment and Labour says it has failed to achieve the target it had set itself for job creation in the 2019-2020 financial year.

Briefing Parliament on its annual financial report, Acting COO of the Department Nolukholo Sigabi said they have been inundated by a huge number of people inquiring about employment opportunities in the department itself.

Sigabi says the target to create 700 000 employment opportunities over the past financial year could not be achieved due to various reasons.

SA’s unemployment rate increased to 30.8% in the third quarter:

“The reason chair is quite obvious. There is high unemployment rate in the country. There are many people who are looking for jobs-who are looking up to the employment services of the Department of Employment and Labour for finding jobs.”

Economist Jeff Schultz says it will take several years for the local economy to recoup employment losses triggered by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Figures released by Statistics SA on Thursday show that the country’s unemployment rate jumped from 23.3% to 30.8% in the third quarter.

The infographic below gives unemployment stats between 2019 and 2020:

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South Africa’s unemployment rate increased by 7.5 percentage points in the third quarter of the year compared with the second quarter. This is the highest unemployment rate recorded since 2008.

The sectors that lost most jobs were electricity, water and transport while finance, private household and construction created some jobs.

Additional reporting by Tshepo Mongoai