SA’s unemployment statistics forcing children to become breadwinners

There are fears that the record high unemployment statistics in South Africa are forcing children to become breadwinners.

On Tuesday, Stats SA released its latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the first quarter of 2021.

It indicates a marginal increase in the number of unemployed people in the country, to an all-time high of 32.6%.

This is an increase of 0.1 of a percentage point from 32.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020.

This means that the number of unemployed people has increased by 28 000 taking the number to almost 7.2 million.

More job seekers giving up hope:

The unemployment rate according to the expanded definition has increased to 43.2% in the first quarter.

As Child Protection Week and Youth Month kick off in the country, a young woman who spoke to SABC on condition of anonymity says her family is living in poverty after her father lost his job.

“We no longer have money to support our family, my little sister was doing matric. It is very difficult to manage because they used to go to school in Parktown, so she used to eat at school. We give her a huge lunchbox so that she can come back with food [from school] for us to eat at home,” she explains.

The audio below is the full report:

Meanwhile, more people have stopped looking for work as they are discouraged by their prospects of securing employment under the current environment.

Number of discouraged job seekers increases: Xhanti Payi