Economists are not expecting a significant number of jobs to be created in the third quarter of this year. Statistics South Africa is expected to release the Quarterly Labour Force Survey,
South Africa’s official unemployment rate for the second quarter was 32.6%, up from 32.9% in the previous quarter.
Tony Ehrenreich, Cosatu’s Provincial Secretary, says that because of logistics impediments in the rail, road, and ports, as well as the ongoing load shedding, not many jobs can be created.
Ehrenreich says jobs in the mining and manufacturing sectors have been on the decline a direct link to the lack of electricity supply as well as network constraints.
Ehrenreich is concerned about the impact of job losses on many families, adding to the unemployment numbers.
He says that government needs to address the issues to grow the economy.
“We are concerned as the rest of society about the high unemployment levels of 40% representing a crisis in any society. But the levels of unemployment for young people, that’s around 60%, threaten the very stability of our country, and urgent measures must be implemented by the government to address those.”
Chief Economist at Antswisa Advisory, Miyelani Mkhabela, says new ways of creating employment must be explored.
“We are not expecting a huge margin in terms of increased employment for the quarter because when you look at the market, it can be whether it can be the mining sector, the agricultural sector, or the manufacturing sector. We couldn’t probably have had headlines in the period that probably could give us a hint of a shift in terms of employment. But at the same time, I think you know, you look at South Africa to start focusing on employment, probably in the district-based municipalities. And then see if we can work around a special economic zone, homes, and then we have decentralized agriculture production in different, you know, municipalities, which could really assist in job creation. But at the current moment we don’t really have the capacity to report. And I think it is basic. The likely aspect that we have really gotten to have investment in strategic units, whether it be in mining, manufacturing, or agriculture, that can probably boost our numbers for this report.”
Mkhabela says growth in job numbers will be seen in the third quarter as part-time jobs are being created for the holiday season.
Unemployment statistics announcement: Tshepo Mongoai:
