The news that a further 61 000 jobs were lost in the second quarter of 2010, on top of the 171 000 jobs which disappeared during the first quarter, and the 870 000 last year - amounting to a colossal 1102 000 since the beginning of 2009 - will cause many workers to question whether 16 years of democracy have done them any good at all.
On average every worker supports five dependents, which means that over 5.5 million additional people have been plunged into a life of poverty and misery in just 18 months. The fact that rate of job losses in South Africa is slowing down will be no comfort to those 5.5 million who are now condemned to a life of destitution.
As well as the direct, devastating effect that such a level of unemployment and poverty has on the individual workers who have lost their jobs and their families, the crisis reaches into every aspect of life.
Thousands of unemployed workers live in shacks with no water, electricity or other basic services. They still face a two-tier education system, a collapsing public health service and still no progress towards a National Health Insurance Scheme. While more and more workers sink into deep poverty, they see a small minority earning millions and living in luxurious mansions.
Such poverty and inequality aggravates all the anti-social consequences which we see more and more - violent community protests, crime, xenophobia and the collapse of social and moral values. Such a level of unemployment is not just a personal and family disaster but a national catastrophe.
The official unemployment rate, which excludes those who have given up looking for work, rose to 25, 3% from the 25, 2% in the first quarter, and remains at an absolutely unacceptable level, far above that of any comparable country, the highest in 62 countries tracked by Bloomberg news agency.
And the more realistic expanded unemployment rate, which includes those who have given up looking for work, increased from 35, 4% to 35.9% over the first quarter.
The Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey has revealed that formal-sector employment fell by 1, 4% in the second quarter, driven by jobs lost in the construction, transport and agriculture sectors. They also revealed that informal sector employment increased by 5, 7% or 115 000 jobs in the 2nd quarter.
This indicates that the casualisation of labour is gaining momentum at an alarming rate. As decent jobs disappear, more and more workers are being forced into low-paid and insecure forms of casual employment.
These statistics make COSATU more determined than ever to campaign, in the short term, for a significant cut in interest rates, to provide relief for employers struggling to avoid retrenching workers and an incentive to those wanting to create new jobs.
In the longer term however, it is became ever clearer that if we are serious about reversing the trend and creating jobs on the scale we need, we have to move rapidly on to a new economic growth path that shifts our economy from one based on the export of raw materials and capital-intensive sectors to one that is labour-intensive, based on manufacturing industry and meeting the basic needs of our people.
Statement issued by Patrick Craven, COSATU national spokesperson, July 27 2010
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