The New Age reports that after President Jacob Zuma led discussions between the government, business and labour in Pretoria on Monday, Sdumo Dlamini, president of labour federation Cosatu, expressed grave concern over recent unemployment statistics.  

The economy haemorrhaged 355,000 jobs in the first three months of this year, placing the unemployment rate at a stubbornly high 26.7%.  Dlamini stated:  “We are calling for a jobs summit as a matter of urgency to put our heads together…  We understand it’s not going to be a rosy picture.  It is going to be antagonistic.  The interests of the government, business and labour are different.  The contradictions will be there, but how we manage the social dialogue is important.”  

Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) general secretary Dennis George said the unemployment statistics were a clear sign that the economy was “stalling”.  “The economy needs stimulation.  If we can get higher economic growth, then we can improve job demand,” he indicated.

• Read this report by Bonolo Selebano in full at The New Age
• See too, Jobs crisis has arrived, with hints of a ‘worse than’ 2008 repeat, at Fin24
• And also, Radical transformation will solve SA unemployment: Black Business Council, at BusinessTech

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