More jobs, not nearly enough

South Africa's official jobless rate eased to 23.9% of the potential labour force in the fourth quarter of last year from 25% in the third. Jobs were added in the trade, social services and manufacturing sectors, a survey showed yesterday.

But growth remains far below the level needed to make a significant dent in unemployment, one of the government's biggest challenges.

In its latest quarterly Labour Force Survey, Statistics SA said the number of unemployed was 4.244million in the three months to December from 4.442million in the third quarter.

If people who have stopped looking for work are included, unemployment decreased by 0.6 percentage points to 35.4%.

South Africa shed about a million jobs in 2009, beset by its first recession in nearly two decades.

The deputy director-general for population and social statistics at Statistics SA, Kefiloe Masiteng, said there were signs that the economy was recovering: "We've seen two successive quarters of employment creation."

The government has singled out job creation as a priority but says the economy needs to grow at 7% a year - more than double the current rate - to reduce unemployment significantly.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has said the economy will probably grow at slightly above the 2.5% predicted by the International Monetary Fund this year.

This would be much lower than the 3.4% growth forecast in October last year.