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BL Premium reports that Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie stood his ground when he met a government delegation last week and repeated his assertion that SA’s unemployment rate was much lower than the official data suggested.
Fourie met the Presidency and senior officials from Stats SA and the National Treasury to discuss his comments that the country was not properly accounting for the informal sector. He said that as a consequence, SA’s jobless rate was inflated. He suggested it could be as low as 10% if the informal sector was fully accounted for. Capitec has estimated that there were as many as 3-million informal businesses in SA. The meeting was attended by Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni and Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke. Despite divergent views on methodology, the parties agreed the data on informal businesses could be improved, with a register for small-scale and informal businesses put on the table. A joint statement from the parties said that if implemented the mooted register would complement the quarterly labour force survey and “serve as a valuable sampling frame for improved labour market analysis”. Fourie’s comments that the official 32.9% jobless rate was not a true reflection of economic activity sharply divided experts, drawing both praise and scorn. According to data from Stats SA, informal sector employment accounted for 19.5% of total employment in the fourth quarter of 2024.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Kabelo Khumalo at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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