No sign of the jobs Ramaphosa promised three years ago — Fedusa

The latest employment and unemployment data released by Stats SA on Tuesday, which showed a slight decrease in unemployment, means “very little” to millions of South Africans who are languishing across the country after years of exclusion from the labour market. 

The Federation of South African Trade Unions (Fedusa) was reacting to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, which showed that official unemployment decreased from 32.9% in the first quarter of 2023 to 32.6% in the second quarter.

Stats SA said the number of unemployed people decreased by 11,000 to 7.9-million during the same quarter. It said the number of people who were not economically active for reasons other than discouragement increased by 93,000 to 13.3-million.

“The data has further exacerbated the federation’s concerns about the overall state of the country and its economy.

“While we acknowledge that the increase of the number of employed people by 154,000 to 16.3-million in the second quarter is better than a decline, we believe that much effort ought to be placed on reviving the economy to enable job creation.”

Fedusa said it was now almost three years since President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the economic recovery plan to a joint sitting of parliament “and we are yet to witness the fruits of the employment stimulus that was meant to create jobs and support livelihoods,” Fedusa said. 

Ramaphosa told parliament in October 2020 that the objectives of the plan included creating jobs, primarily through aggressive infrastructure investment and mass employment programmes. The plan also sought to reindustrialise the economy, focusing on growing small businesses,

“Businesses and industry have spelt out what is needed to enable them to create jobs. However, even with that clarity, we are still faced with this bleak reality,” Fedusa said.

It said the employment gains reported by Stats SA were observed in the formal sector, which went up by 143,000, while losses were seen in the informal sector which declined by 33,000.

Fedusa said with fuel and electricity prices increasing incessantly, it was concerned that the poorest households were struggling to survive.

“We saw reports recently of an Eastern Cape mother who resorted to killing her children before she took her own life due to poverty. These incidents are said to be on the rise in that province, further spelling out the consequences of the cost-of-living crisis which the government has been slow to respond to.”

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