One out of three South Africans who want to work, cannot find work
29-07-2010

The labour sector is still showing no significant signs of recovery after the recession, Solidarity said this week. The Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the second quarter of 2010 released by Statistics South Africa earlier this week shows that employment dropped by 61 000 jobs in the past quarter, while an estimated 232 000 jobs were lost in the first half of 2010.

“The broad unemployment rate of 32,8% means that one out of three South Africans who would like to work, cannot find work,” said Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans. “In addition, the drop in employment in particularly the formal manufacturing and construction sectors is extremely worrying because these sectors are critically important for South Africa’s economic recovery,” Kleynhans added. The broad definition of unemployment includes both unemployed people and discouraged jobseekers. Employment in the formal sector decreased by 269 000 in the first half of 2010. Of these, 129 000 jobs were lost in the second quarter of 2010. The small increase of 37 000 jobs in the informal sector, agricultural sector and private households has only marginally countered this decrease. “More than 60% of the jobs lost in the first half of the year in the formal sector were in the manufacturing and construction industries,” Kleynhans explained. “The job losses in the construction industry are largely due to the completion of large infrastructure projects, as well as decreased activity in residential construction,” he added. Employment in the formal manufacturing and construction sectors dropped by 74 000 and 54 000 respectively in the second quarter of 2010. “Employment decreased sharply during the recession until the third quarter of 2009. Since then employment has continued to drop, but at a slower rate, and although there was a small increase in the fourth quarter, it was cancelled out again in 2010,” explained Kleynhans.