This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.The Citizen reports that Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Parks Tau, agreed last week with Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie that unemployment statistics should include work in the informal sector. However, not everybody agrees.
Fourie argued that Statistics SA should rethink how it measured unemployment and maintained that, when the vast informal sector was considered, the unemployment rate of 32.9% could be closer to 10%. “We talk about an unemployment rate of 32%, but Statistics SA does not count self-employed people. I think that is an area we must correct. The unemployment rate is probably actually 10%. Just go look at the number of people in the township informal market who sell all sorts of stuff and have a turnover of R1 000 per day,” Fourie indicated. In response to a parliamentary question, Tau concurred that there was significant undercounting, particularly when the informal sector was considered. “This is an issue that everyone should collectively engage with to both acknowledge the informal sector and reinforce the support mechanisms for what was a major contributor to employment in the country,” he indicated. However, the independent economic research institution TIPS (Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies) does not agree with Fourie. TIPS economist Dr Neva Makgetla said their own research showed that claims by a few business leaders and researchers that the informal sector had been neglected in both official data on unemployment and in government strategies to address joblessness were at best overdrawn and at worst simply false.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ina Opperman at The Citizen
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