COSATU response to employment statistics
The Congress of South African Trade Unions is relieved by the news that there was a small reduction, of 259 000, in the number of those unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2010.
According to Statistics South Africa, unemployment fell from 25.3% in the 3rd quarter of 2010 to 24% in the fourth quarter. A year earlier, the jobless rate was 24.2%.
The number of employed persons increased by 1.2% from the third to fourth quarter, from 12.97 million to 13.1 million, but was still 0.9% lower than the previous year's level.
These are the figures which exclude those who are deemed to have given up looking for work and a very worrying statistic is an increase of 5.8% in the number of ‘discouraged workers' who are no longer seeking employment.
It will therefore be important to see the expanded unemployment figure which includes these workers, which stood at 36.6% at the end of the third quarter to assess the significance of today's figures.
Also of concern is the fact that 68% of the 4.1 million unemployed workers had been jobless for over a year or longer.
Another worry is the continuing racial bias in the figure, with unemployment of Africans at 28.1% compared to 21.3% for coloureds, 7.9% for Indians and 5.5% for whites.
It is far too soon to begin celebrations. We shall need to check that the new jobs were a result of seasonal workers being employed over the festive season and wait for the unemployment figure which includes the ‘discouraged workers'.
The level of unemployment is still outrageously high relative to any comparable country and we cannot afford any complacency. We expect President Zuma on Thursday to reassure South Africans that job creation remains his top priority and to spell out the policies he is adopting to achieve his target of creating five million jobs and bringing unemployment down to 15% by 2020.
Statement issued by Patrick Craven, COSATU national spokesperson, February 8 2011
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