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On Thursday, Solidarity expressed its dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of the unemployment crisis and especially the youth unemployment crisis that SA’s was currently facing.
This was indicated after Statistics SA reported on Wednesday that the official unemployment rate for the first quarter had been 32,6%, while the rate according to the expanded definition, which was inclusive of unemployed persons actively looking for a job plus unemployed persons who had given up finding a job, currently stood at 43,2%. The trade union noted that youth unemployment was currently at an extremely worrying 74.7%, which implied that three out of every four young people did not have a job. “It is inconceivable that other countries with a youth unemployment rate of between 5% and 10% hold crisis conferences and implement emergency plans while the South African government does nothing of the kind. On the contrary, our contingency plan is to increase the minimum wage and to ensure that load shedding continues,” commented Theuns du Buisson, economic researcher at Solidarity. According to Du Buisson, SA’s rate of 74.7% discouraged any long-term investor, especially because of the increase in crime, drug abuse, violence and other miseries associated with such a figure. He added that continued regulations and legislation were also further deterrents for foreign investors in addition to hindering any sustainable economic growth in SA.
- Read Solidarity’s press statement in the above regard at Solidarity News
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