Siyabonga Sithole
ActionSA and other political parties have reacted to the unemployment figures released this morning by Statistics South Africa which recorded a slight decline in the country’s unemployment figures for the first quarter of 2022.
According to StatsSA the official unemployment rate declined by 34.5% in the first quarter of 2022 with the latest data estimating that 370 000 jobs were gained between 4th quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. The official unemployment rate retreated from a record high of 35.3% in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 34.5% in the first quarter of 2022, Stats SA said on Monday.
ActionSA has called on the government to relax the country's labour laws, overhaul SA education system by building new universities, colleges and TVET colleges as well as review SA legislation against red tape and ease of doing business and bring about a reduction to the country's debt-to -GDP ratio as some of the measures.
These and many other measures were tabled by the newest opposition party saying that the minor decrease in both the narrow and broad definition of unemployment which decreased by 0.8% and 0 7% were still very concerning.
“ActionSA welcomes any positive change in the unemployment figures faced by South Africans which remains a crisis at 45.5%, giving the country the unenviable title of having the highest unemployment rate in the world. Until such time as South Africa undergoes fundamental economic reforms, the trend of rising unemployment will persist, and, soon, an increasing majority of South Africans will not know the dignity that comes from a job,” ActionSA said in a statement released following the release of unemployment figures.
The quarterly labour force survey (QLFS) is a household based sample survey which records the labour market activities of individuals between the ages of 15 and 64 with young people being the hardest hit in the labour market where only 244 000 young people gaining employment in the first quarter of the year. Statistician general Risenga Maluleke said many young people still remain adversely affected by unemployment despite a decrease in unemployment rate with a decline of 5000 jobs.
Community and social services, manufacturing and trade saw the biggest increase in job gains while private households, finance, construction and agriculture saw major losses in employment gains.
The drop in hiring of domestic workers indicates that many households are over stretched as they find the going getting hard with household finances badly affected by the struggling economy and catastrophic unemployment rate.
The latest QLFS shows that the number of domestic workers on the country decreased from 949 000 in the 4th quarter of 2022 to 808 000 workers in 1st quarter of 2022, a shocking high 14.9 percentage point decrease quarter to quarter.