Jobless future beckons

Just under half a million pupils who enrolled to write their matric exams this year will enter the embattled labour market next year.

And, according to Adcorp's labour economist, Loane Sharpe, about 306000 will not find jobs.

"About 133000 [of the estimated 700000 matriculants] will go into further education," said Sharpe.

Rising higher education fees will hinder many hopeful students desperate for a qualification to improve their chances of finding work unless they qualify for state aid, bursaries or financial assistance.

SA Institute of Race Relations researcher Boitumelo Sehlatswe said there were 500000 young people, made up of those who did not finish school, in addition to the matriculants looking for work.

Sharpe has painted a bleak picture for matriculants going to government-operated further education and training institutions.

"FETs are totally dysfunctional ... The probability of finding work with an FET qualification is lower than without an FET education."

He said the unemployment rate for those aged between 15 and 24 was 49.9%, translating into 3.4million youths who either were not looking for work or could not find it and were not in school or varsity.

Across all age groups, 13.2million South Africans were unemployed, he said.

Stanlib chief economist Kevin Lings said South Africa had not done enough to implement programmes and policies to create jobs for matriculants.

"This is particularly problematic. The current matric class will not have better prospects than in previous years," he said.

Though there is no "quick fix", Lings said one way was to enable young people to get work experience even if they were poorly paid.

"StatsSA found that previous work experience increased the chances of finding employment."

Lings said young adults with previous experience were six times more likely to find a job compared to their counterparts with no work experience. He said the government youth wage incentive scheme, which starts in January could boost youth jobs.

Lings said: "Young people who have been unemployed for less than a year are more than twice as likely to find a job compared to those that are unemployed for longer."

But Sharpe said even with a skill, chances of finding a job would be an uphill battle as recruitment for permanent positions deteriorated.

"The labour market is in a crisis ... the rate of dismissals at the highest level in 10 years."

The recruitment industry and the government, however, say there are options for youngsters.

Kay Vittee, CEO of Quest Staffing Solutions, a recruiter for white-collar workers said: "Learners should take comfort in the knowledge that there are options."

These included applying for skills or learnership programmes which offer a combination of formal and workplace learning and volunteering by shadowing and doing seasonal and relief work.

Treasury Department spokesman Jabulani Sikhakhane said the employment tax incentive, a bill tabled in parliament last month, was one programme which fell under the government's youth employment strategy.

"The ETI is in part a temporary programme aimed at stimulating the demand for young first-time job seekers. It is no substitute to programmes that address the long-term employability of young people."

He said the Jobs Fund, established in 2011, had targeted the creation of 150000 permanent jobs.

"Thus far it has contracted with 66 projects that must deliver 93941 new permanent jobs over their implementation period.

"Projects are given three years within which to deliver on their job targets."

Pietman Roos, SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry economist, said the chamber met Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Friday to discuss the scope of application for the employment tax incentive, otherwise known as the youth wage subsidy.

He said there was interest from the chamber's members in the scheme but its application needed to be as wide as possible.

Roos said the service industry, which was labour intensive, could absorb more entrants to the job market.

For this to happen, employers needed clarity so that they could plan ahead before the scheme was expected to start in April .

Tim Harris, DA finance spokesman, said there would always be an over-supply of new entrants into the job market because South Africa failed to deal with structural problems.

Had the government accepted the DA's proposal, close to 500000 youth jobs over three years could have been created, Harris said.

Defence spokesman Siphiwe Dlamini estimated between 1500 and 2000 new recruits would join the military next year.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-General Solomon Makgale said the police would recruit about 1000 new trainees for 2014.