BusinessLive reports that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said on Monday that SA needed at least 2% growth to begin to tackle unemployment and serious structural reforms.  

OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria said ensuring a better future for all South Africans required increased access to higher education, a stronger and fairer labour market, deeper participation in regional markets and a regulatory framework that fostered entrepreneurship and allowed small businesses to thrive.  OECD recommendations include opening vital sectors, introducing a national minimum wage and developing apprenticeship and internship programmes.  "Low growth has kept unemployment high at 27% … [but] even people with jobs have this phenomenon of in-work poverty because the wages are so low.  We need to open up that conversation," the organisation indicated  SA’s unemployment rate was at a 14-year high of 27.7% in the first quarter of 2017.

• Read this report by Sunita Menon in full at BusinessLive
• Read too, OECD: SA's low employment rate makes economy sluggish, at eNCA

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