Years of policy failure, compounded by the lockdown restrictions of recent months, have left South Africa facing a humanitarian crisis of steadily rising unemployment, the IRR has said in a statement.
It was responding to the results of the 3rd Quarter Labour Force Survey (QLFS) published by Stats SA this week, showing that the country’s unemployment rate has risen to 30.8% (43.1% on the expanded definition, which includes discouraged work seekers who have given up looking for jobs).
This is the highest recorded since 2008.
In a statement, the IRR pointed out that while the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19 played a significant part in the third-quarter hike in joblessness, data in the 2020 South Africa Survey – published by the IRR – showed that joblessness ‘has been rising steadily since 2009’.
‘In that year, 1.7 million people were classified as “new entrants” (people who were unemployed during the reference period and had never worked before). A decade later, there were 2.5 million in this category.
‘In 2009, the number of people who were declared unemployed due to losing a job (by being laid off, or because a business was sold or closed down) was 1.5 million. In 2019, this figure had grown to more than 2 million.’
Overall, joblessness had risen from 4.3 million in the 3rd Quarter of 2009 to 6.5 million.
‘Put differently, the figures show that only 51.5% of South Africans between 35 and 64 have a job, and only 57% between 15 and 34 are employed or are in education or training. Only 2 in every 5 South Africans between 25 and 34 are employed.’
The IRR said: ‘The bigger picture makes it clear that the crisis, though it was compounded by the pandemic, long preceded the spread of Covid-19 infections.
‘By far the greatest threat to South Africans’ chances of getting a job and being able to put food on the table in millions of households across the country is the failure of government policy to attract investment on which economic growth and job creation depend.
‘Key among these is the African National Congress’s reckless drive to introduce expropriation without compensation, thus undermining property rights and robbing investors of confidence in the South African economy.’
The IRR pointed out that while the jobless bore the brunt of the ‘humanitarian disaster of joblessness’, the scale of rising unemployment risks dashing all South Africans’ hopes ‘of a fair, stable and prospering society’.