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<\/a><\/p>\nThe data comes at a time when South Africa is seeking new direction under new leadership to drive economic growth which has stalled under the tenure of current president, Jacob Zuma.<\/p>\n
Zuma however, is expected to be recalled ahead of his official term, and is set to be replaced with new ANC leader and national deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n
Should Ramaphosa take over as South Africa\u2019s next president, he has stated publicly that he will use the NDP as his blueprint for achieving his goal of delivering 3% GDP growth in 2018, rising to 5% by 2023.<\/p>\n
StatsSA said that formal sector employment declined by 135,000 while the informal sector employment increased by 119,000 compared to Q3: 2017.<\/p>\n
Declines in Finance (91,000), Trade (45,000), private households (43,000), and Mining industries (35,000) contributed mostly to the net loss in employment.<\/p>\n
However, employment was created in Community, social and personal services (75,000), Manufacturing (42,000), Agriculture (39,000), Construction (26,000) and Transport (13,000) in the same period.<\/p>\n
Compared to the Q4:2016, employment increased by 102,000 or 0.6% while unemployment grew by 99,000 or 1.7 % in Q4:2017.<\/p>\n
The largest decline in the unemployment rate was recorded in Northern Cape (2.8 percentage points), Western Cape (2.4 percentage points) and North West (2.3 percentage points). Between Q3: 2017 and Q4: 2017, the number of discouraged work-seekers grew by 103,000 (or 4.2%) to 2.5 million persons.<\/p>\n
A decline in unemployment rate was observed across all age groups. Compared to adults the unemployment rate was highest among the youth irrespective of educational level. Approximately 3.1 million (29.7%) of the 10.3 million young persons (15-24 years) were not in employment, education or training, StatsSA said.<\/p>\n