Cosatu: Job stats a national catastrophe

South Africa’s biggest labour federation Cosatu has branded the latest Job stats as a ‘national catastrophe’.

“The news that a further 61 000 jobs were lost in the second quarter of 2010, on top of the 171 000 jobs which disappeared during the first quarter, and the 870 000 last year - amounting to a colossal 1102 000 since the beginning of 2009 - will cause many workers to question whether 16 years of democracy have done them any good at all,” Cosatu said.

Cosatu said these latest job statics reveals that 5.5 million additional people have been plunged into a life of poverty, misery and destitution in just 18 months.

Cosatu says it fears this situation aggravates all the anti-social consequences which South Africans see more and more in the form of violent community protests, crime, xenophobia and the collapse of social and moral values.

This is after Statistics SA said in its Quarterly Labour Force Survey that the number of unemployed persons remained virtually unchanged between the first and second quarter of 2010, while the number of discouraged work-seekers increased by 68,000.

Fedusa blames unemployment rate on strong rand

Members from the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) say they are “very concerned" about the latest unemployment figures released today.

Fedusa general secretary Dennis George said the federation remains "actively involved" at the provincial and national levels in shaping policy and an economic growth path that would allow for more sustainable jobs to be created, "Furthermore Fedusa is also of the opinion that in order to stimulate the economy to create more jobs, there should be a devaluation of South Africa's rand to bolster export volumes,” he said.

George said this move was widely supported by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in its latest report on South Africa.

The report suggested that the strong rand, which rallied nearly 30 percent, last year, was to blame for South Africa's low export levels.

Fedusa also said that South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world

George said Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan had also noted that a more competitive and stable currency was required for future growth.

"We as Fedusa agree with this and this is why we as labour were so adamant that the SA Reserve Bank governor Gill Marcus cut the interest rates by at least 100 basis points."