South Africa’s unemployment stats are way scarier than you think: expert
Earlier this year, the Institute for Race Relations released its “South Africa” report, finding that there were over 15.5 million people with jobs in South Africa in 2016, while over 17 million people were receiving social grants every month.
This equates to a 328% increase in the number of people receiving grants since 2001, whereas those with jobs increased by only 24%, the report said.
According to Momentum and Unisa’s latest Household Financial Wellness Index, these trends are likely to continue in the coming months, with a further 1 million South Africans expected to be unemployed by the end of 2018.
“But a deeper analysis of the numbers reveals an even scarier picture of large sections of the population suffering from chronic joblessness and worrying details about the country’s youth unemployment statistics that haven’t been sufficiently highlighted,” said Derek Yu, associate professor of economics at the University of the Western Cape.
In an analysis for The Conversation, Yu found that 39% of all unemployed South Africans have never worked before, while among young people this figure was even higher at 60.3%.
There are similar issues at the other end of the age range, said Yu, with 47.4% of 50-65 year-olds in the country not having worked for the last five years.
To save the situation the government might have to make certain difficult choices, said Yu.
“These could include accepting that certain age groups, above youth age, are unemployable and that what they need are poverty alleviation interventions. The government might then be able to focus on facilitating job opportunities for those aged between 15 and 29 who account for nearly half of total unemployed.”
With the focus shifting towards the younger generations, government could look at introducing new incentives such as a transport subsidy which would allow young people to travel further for work.
“Self-employment is another potential route for young people,” he said. “But even that number is falling. It’s alarming that between 2008 and 2017 the number of youth employers or self employed workers dropped from 390,000 to 340,000.”
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