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South Africa’s economically active population growing – DoL

27th October 2014

By: Leandi Kolver

Creamer Media Deputy Editor

  

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While South Africa’s economically active population was growing, indicating that more people were coming into the labour force, this growth was not mirrored in the number of jobs created year-on-year, the Department of Labour (DoL) said in its Annual Labour Market Bulletin (ALMB) 2013-2014 report, released on Monday.

According to the ALMB, the economically active population grew by 3.9% between September 2011 and September 2012, and by another 2.3% between September 2012 and September 2013.

In March this year, South Africa’s economically active population stood at 20.12-million people, the DoL said.

The ALMB’s provincial breakdown showed that five of the country’s nine provinces’ economically active population had been constantly increasing between September 2011 and March 2014.

Meanwhile, over the foreseeable future, it was reported that the world economy would probably grow more slowly than before the global crisis, the DoL stated.

“This complicates the task of generating the more than 42-million jobs that are needed every year in order to meet the growing number of new entrants in the global labour market,” the report stated.

The DoL noted that official data had put South Africa’s unemployment rate above 25% between March 2013 and March 2014.

“In other words, the official unemployment rates increased by 0.2% year-on-year. Furthermore, long-term unemployment increased by 4.9% as a result of the labour absorption rates, which remained almost unchanged at 42.1% in March 2013 and 42.8% in March 2014,” the DoL said.

“At the present pace, it will take months or years for the economic growth to reach the [targeted] 7% a year to create sustainable employment to absorb the growing number of unemployed persons.

“Sustainable economic growth, restoring the country’s competitiveness in the global economy and better matching of work-seekers with jobs are required for government to be able to find employment for more than five-million unemployed people,” the DoL concluded.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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