QLFS trainwreck: A job is the best guarantee of social security

24 August 2021

The fact that the expanded unemployment rate now stands at an all-time high of 44.4%, according to today’s release of the second quarter Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), suggests a runaway train destined for disaster.

Government urgently needs to make labour-absorbing job-creation South Africa’s number one policy priority. A job is the best guarantee of social security.

All of government’s efforts should be focused on enabling the private sector to create jobs. This is something the ANC should bear in mind as it entertains fanciful proposals about a R200 billion Basic Income Grant and the mad, unworkable, proposals contained in the Green Paper on Social Security and Retirement Reforms released by the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, last week.

The key takeaways from the QLFS are as follows: between the first and second quarters of 2021, on the strict definition of unemployment, the number of unemployed people increased by 584 000 to 7.8 million. The number of discouraged work-seekers increased by 186 000 (5.9%). This means that, overall, almost 12 million South Africans do not have a job. The figure is mind-blowing.

Government seems to have given up on job-creation, overwhelmed by the enormous, deep-seated structural causes of unemployment. It prefers instead to engage in wishful thinking about expanding the country’s massive social welfare net, even though there is a tiny pool of rapidly diminishing taxpayers who are already squeezed to the hilt.

But we can start to tackle job-creation by reforming our onerous labour laws and freeing up the labour market to make it more flexible and absorptive.

That is why the DA is pushing, among other things, for an end to the pernicious practice whereby the Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi, extends collective bargaining agreements to parties who did not sign them in the first place. This imposes huge costs on new- and small firms. It is a job-killer.

Furthermore, as the country begins to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic and job-crushing lockdowns, we need to start supporting value-adding, export-led growth sectors, especially tourism, horticulture, agro-processing and logistics. These sectors can produce both the number and type of jobs required in South Africa.

The QLFS should be a massive wake-up call to government. It is time to focus single-mindedly on solving the problem of job-creation.

Issued by Michael Cardo, DA Shadow Minister of Employment and Labour, 24 August 2021