SA employment rate highest ever: Duarte

There was no point to the DA's march for "real jobs" on Wednesday, ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte said. File picture: Phill Magakoe

There was no point to the DA's march for "real jobs" on Wednesday, ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte said. File picture: Phill Magakoe

Published Feb 11, 2014

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Johannesburg - South Africa's employment levels were the highest they had ever been in its history, ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte said on Monday.

“The Stats SA Quarterly Report on Labour reports that 1 million more South Africans are employed bringing the total number of employed people to over 15 million, the highest it has ever been in the history of our country,” Duarte said in a statement.

She said the report showed that interventions by the African National Congress-led government in various sectors such as manufacturing, infrastructure, tourism trade and aqua culture, were making good progress.

“The Western Cape government in real terms has lost 8 000 jobs in the government sector, whilst national government employment has increased by 98 000 jobs,” she said.

“We would wish for more jobs to be created in the Western Cape and elsewhere, but we think it is disingenuous of the DA to try and claim the reasons for the creation of jobs.”

The Western Cape had shown the best result in the report. However the areas in which jobs were created, such as manufacturing, tourism trade, private households, and finance, were not areas in which the Western Cape government had any influence.

“Over the last four and half years if we analyse where job growth has been the most sustainable it has been in Gauteng and in Limpopo,” Duarte said.

Sapa

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