Unemployment

 

South African unemployment crisis

By Qaqamba Matundu

Unemployment rate lessened to 32,7% in quarter 4 of 2022 from 32,9% in quarter 3, 0,2% quarter 3 to quarter 4 in 2022.

“Statistics South Africa said 169 000 jobs were gained between Q3 and Q4, while the number of unemployed persons increased by 28 000 to 7,8 million.” Says Storm Simpson, reporter from The South African.

According to Politicsweb industries like finance (103 000), private household (54 000), trade (52 000) and transport (43 000) recorded the largest job gains. Job loses were recorded in community and social services (122 000), agriculture (12 000) and construction (12 000). The formal sector recorded an increase in employment of 143 000 and the informal sector recorded a loss in employment of 155 000 between the Q3 and Q4 of 2022.

“South Africa’s unemployment rate remains sky high and the best that can be said about terrible situation is that the number appears to be moving in the right direction.” Says Ed Stoddard from Daily Maverick.

Between Q3 and Q4 it is said by Stats SA that high employment was recorded in the Western Cape the most, followed by Eastern Cape and Northern Cape and unfortunately for Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and Free State there were many job losses.

The number of people no longer economically active for reasons other than discouragement increased by 95 000 to 13,4 million and discouraged job seekers decreased by 151 000 this worked out to a net decrease of 57 000 in the economically inactive population.Compared to a year ago, total employment increased by 1,4 million persons (or 9,6%).

The categories that had high number of employments in Q4:2022 compared to Q3:2022 were Managerial occupations (up to 58 000), Elementary (50 000), Domestic workers (38 000) and professional (29 000). Occupation and employment decrease was on Technician occupations (down by 62 000). Craft and related trade remained unchanged. Year-on-year gain in employment were mainly driven by sales and services occupations (310 000), followed by Manager (281 000), Clerks (220 000) and Technician occupations (212 000). The only losses in employment were recorded among Domestic workers (86 000) occupations in Q4:2022 compared to Q4:2021.

“The graduate unemployment rate (10,6%) is 22,1 percent points lower than the national official unemployment rate. The rate of unemployment graduates is more than doubled (4,4%) in 2012 to 10,6% in 2022 in the past 10 years. The unemployment rate among the black population group (36,8%) remains higher than the national average and other population groups. Black women continue to be most vulnerable with an unemployment rate of 39,5% in the fourth quarter of 2022. This is 4,0 percentage points higher than the national average for women at 35,5%.” Says Unathi Nkanjeni, a reporter from TimesLive.

“Covid-19 has exacerbated the divide between those who are employed and those who are unemployed. Last year our unemployment rate reached its highest recorded level.” Says President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Stats SA says about 10,2 million young people aged 15-24 years in Q4:2022, of which 33,6% were not in employment, education, or training. This is 0,8 of a percentage point higher than the NEET rate in Q4:2021. In this age group, the NEET rate for males and females increased by 0,5 of a percentage point and 1,1 percentage points, respectively NEET rate for females was higher than that of their male counterparts in both years.

“The surge in rolling blackouts means the economy this year is expected to grow between 0,3% and 0,9%, according to official forecasts, that is hardly going to trigger a hiring binge among hard-pressed businesses. Under the expanded definition, which includes discouraged job seekers, the rate fell to 42,6% from 43,1%. Neither number is completely accurate, and economists tend to use them to gauge broad trends. South Africa’s economy has many structural challenges thwarting the creation of jobs on the scale needed to address this scourge, but the energy crisis is clearly the biggest shock now to both economic growth and employment level.” Says Ed Stoddard

According to Nkosi Gift, a reporter from South Africanza, lack of education and training among young people in South Africa is one of the causes of unemployment. Students are taught all basics, but they are not really taught the necessary skills that can make them self-sufficient and that can help them establish businesses and thus provide economic opportunities in their communities. There are so many people out there who are unemployed, but the problem is that there are less numbers of jobs available.

Pride also plays a vital role in the number of unemployed people. They be wanting fancy jobs and do not want to work with their hands because they believe that certain jobs are beneath their standards. The rise in Trade Unions has been highlighted as a major reason for unemployment in SA because they have made the labour unrealistically expensive. In early days of trade unions, they helped the poor workers fight for living wages and other improved working conditions. However, their proliferation has made it unattractive to employ workers in SA because some employers are not able to meet their wage requirements. The declining global economy is another cause of unemployment because other products decline when it comes to being in demand, forcing employees to reduce number of employers on their payrolls.

“South Africa has struggled to claw back the jobs it lost in the first months of the pandemic in 2020, when 2,2 million people found themselves without work. In the quarters that followed, the official unemployed rate rose to record levels until the beginning of 2022.

We have seen the year 2022 gaining a lot of jobs and we have seen unemployment starting to decline in the year 2022, so it means that we are going back to our pre-covid level although you will recall in the second quarter of the year 2022, we lost about 2 million jobs. We were sitting at 16 million jobs before covid, and we still have not recovered from that. We are not sitting at 15,8 million jobs, so we are still about 600 000 jobs short to be where we were when we were hit by covid.” Says Statitician General Risenga Maluleke