Unemployment in the North West province is unmanageable
13 August 2024
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in the North West has noted with concern the continued rise in the unemployment rate in the province.
The Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the second quarter of 2024, released on Tuesday, shows that in the North West 12 000 more people lost their jobs over the past three months, and this led the unemployment rate to rise to 54.2%, an increase of 0.6% on a quarter to quarter basis, and 0.7% on a year on year basis.
This makes the North West the only province in the country where there are more unemployed people than there are employed people. The fact is unemployment in the province has been rising steadily and has now reached unmanageable levels.
COSATU North West believes that this calls for immediate intervention as we cannot continue to live within an economy which is unable to create jobs.
It also demonstrates that the current economic policies are failing to stimulate the economy in such a manner that affords it capacity to absorb the majority of the new entrants into the labour market, while simultaneously retaining existing jobs.
We were inspired by President Cyril Ramaphosa when he said that the manufacturing capacity of the country must be revived, and we need to build a capacity to beneficiate the products produced within the country.
Premier of the North West Lazarus Mokgotsi also motivated us when he said he would convene a jobs and economic summit in the province.
It appears the commitments made by President Ramaphosa and Premier Mokgotsi have become more urgent and need to be implemented with immediate effect.
The current joblessness in the province cannot be left unmitigated, otherwise it will lead to a calamitous situation the province, which might spillover to the rest of country.
We call on the Premier and his executive to put all hands-on deck to resolve the unemployment crisis we are facing.
Issued by Kopano Konopi, Provincial Secretary of COSATU North West, 13 August 2024
