The latest unemployment numbers released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) last week, depressed me again. The official unemployment rate rose to 32.9% in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 0.2% in comparison to the last quarter of year 2022. When the folks who have given up looking for work are included in the calculations, the unofficial unemployment rate stands at 42.4%.
These shocking unemployment rates are a catastrophe. The media house Bloomberg has been right to describe South Africa’s unemployment a “crisis”.
The staggering unemployment rates should not be surprising to anybody who has kept up with South Africa’s affairs over the years. As I echoed on Gareth Cliff’s morning show The Burning Platform last week, there is no way we can have significantly reduced unemployment rates in an environment that is not conducive to stronger business productivity and increased investment…..
To read more, check full article on PoliticsWeb.