Cape Times reports that the government has been urged to acknowledge that its unemployment policies have failed and that it needs to do something about the crisis that cost 355,000 people their jobs in the first quarter of 2016.  

Trade unions and specialists agree that the time has come for extraordinary solutions to the country’s unemployment problem.  The figures, which have been described as “disheartening” by Cosatu, were released by Statistics SA on Monday.  They show that the unemployment rate increased to 26.7%.  Cosatu called for a jobs summit.  Fedusa said they were prepared to engage the president on some of the factors hampering the country’s growth.  Labour analyst Tony Healy noted that nothing the government has done so far about the job crisis has helped.

• Read this report by Theto Mahlakoana in full at Cape Times
• Read too, Business Day’s editorial, Urgent action needed on jobs, at BDLive
• Cosatu’s press release in this regard is at Cosatu Today

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page