COSATU statement on the latest unemployment figures
14 May 2019
The latest depressing quarterly employment statistics by Stats SA that shows a 05% increase in the unemployment rate should serve as a wakeup call to the incoming administration. This is very alarming considering that of the 36 million people of the working-age population, 27.6% are officially unemployed. According to Statistics South Africa, the country’s unemployment rate rose to 27.6% in the first quarter from 27.1% in the last quarter of 2018.
This comes on the heels of the Spectator Index, in January, revealing that South Africa is the country with the highest youth unemployment rate in the world, with about 52,8% of young people unemployed. This is calamitous for the country because it means millions of young people will be dependent on the state for their well being and that of their families.
It is therefore peculiar to see that there are attempts by the government to weaken the capacity of the state through public service retrenchments. This is either a sign that the government is in denial about the extent of the crisis or it has run out of ideas. It is now clear that the neoliberal policies based on “market forces” and international competitiveness are not going to solve our economic problems. These policies have seen more and more people sliding into poverty in this country.
In the current epoch of Neoliberalism, the centrist political establishment, of which our Treasury and SARB are an epitome in South Africa, are captive to financial capital in their superstitious fixation with narrow bands of inflation-target and budget-deficit and at the expense of industrial expansion and job creation.