Johannesburg - The government has come under fire from the labour movement for the latest losses in employment, with Cosatu calling the administration “feckless and uninspired”.
Employment in the formal sector fell by 0.7 percent or 67 000 jobs to 9.218 million in the second quarter compared with the previous quarter, a survey by Statistics SA showed.
Cosatu, which marched for decent jobs, said this proved that “our feckless and uninspired government is out of (its) depth”, and accused the private sector of hoarding R600 billion.
Although the manufacturing sector rebounded in real terms in the second quarter, it shed 7 000 jobs during that quarter. The survey also showed jobs were shed in the mining and transport sectors.
Biggest decline
The biggest declines were in the government sector, where 48 000 jobs were lost. Stats SA said this was reflective of the temporary jobs that were created by the Independent Electoral Commission during the local government elections, which fell away once the elections were over.
There were also job losses in mining and transport.
Kamilla Kaplan, an economist at Investec, said labour market dynamics remained weak, and subdued economic activity and depressed business confidence continued to restrict private sector employment growth.
“On a trend basis, the growth in public sector employment is expected to slow, as the budget aims to reduce the growth in civil service compensation. The magnitude and growth of civil service remuneration has been a key risk area for the fiscal outlook.”
The SA Reserve Bank and the World Bank forecast growth of 0.4 percent this year, while the International Monetary Fund projected gross domestic product (GDP) of 0.1 percent.
Gerrit van Rooyen at NKC African Economics said the statistics provided further evidence of lacklustre employment and economic conditions.
“Given that our latest real GDP growth forecast for 2016 is only marginally in positive territory, there is little to suggest that South Africa’s structural unemployment dilemma will improve over the short term.”
Cosatu said the government’s vacillation was destroying workers’ livelihoods. “Government ministers continue to make excuses and lament over something that they are supposed to fix.”
Abandoned
Cosatu said the progressive policies of the ANC had been abandoned and replaced by policies that pandered to big business and ratings agencies.
“The alliance’s decision for the overhaul of the economic and labour market chapter of national development has been ignored. This contributes to the building... of a standing army of angry, desperate and unemployed citizens.”
The Federation of Unions of SA said it was distressed by shrinking employment. President Koos Bezuidenhout said the announcement of job losses was worrying as a delegation led by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan returned from a conference in the US to convince rating agencies and investors that the government and its social partners were working together to challenge structural problems.
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