\u201cSometimes I\u2019d think \u2018I don\u2019t have a job, I was retrenched, what am I going to do? There\u2019s no salary coming in any more\u2019,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Mbatha is one of an\u00a0estimated 3 million people who lost their jobs as restrictions to curb the coronavirus pandemic shuttered all but essential services in Africa\u2019s most industrialized economy.<\/p>\n
Most businesses were shut for five weeks from March 27 and some reduced staff or closed down permanently because of the lockdown. A study by a group of 30 academics and researchers shows 1.5 million more people were furloughed.<\/p>\n
What Bloomberg\u2019s Economist Says<\/strong><\/p>\n A lot of the second-quarter job losses should be reversed once the economy opens up, but the question is by how much and how soon? We think the recovery will be protracted given the weak growth outlook.<\/p>\n We also expect a slight uptick in the structural unemployment rate as some who were\u00a0laid off<\/span>\u00a0during the crisis remain permanently unemployed.<\/p>\n –Boingotlo Gasealahwe, Africa economist<\/p>\n South Africa faced an unemployment crisis even before the virus. The jobless rate has been above 20% for at least two decades, even though the economy expanded by 5% or more a year in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n Analysts cite an education system that doesn\u2019t provide adequate skills and strict labor laws that make hiring and firing onerous and apartheid-era spatial planning that make it difficult for job seekers to enter and remain in the formal workforce as part of the problem.<\/p>\n President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged to boost economic growth to 5% by 2023 and to prioritize employment when he was campaigning to become leader of the ruling party three years ago.<\/p>\n Since becoming president of the country, he hosted a jobs summit that aimed to create 275,000 positions annually and launched a program to create job opportunities for young people.<\/p>\n The results have been patchy and a lack of urgency in implementing policies to boost growth and convince businesses to invest are hindering progress.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the mismatch that we see between government solutions and the problems that we have is because government is making policy for an economy that doesn\u2019t exist,\u201d said Sithembile Mbete, a senior lecturer in political studies at the University of Pretoria.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Stubbornly-high.jpg\")
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