GNU CLUELESS ON HOW TO TACKLE UNEMPLOYMENT – UNIONS

Young people remain the most vulnerable in the job market, with almost half of them without a job

- SIYAVUYA MZANTSI

THE increase in the official unemployment rate from 31,9% to 32,9% exposes the Government of National Unity's (GNU) "investment conferences" as gimmicks that only serve to create false sense of hope.

That is how some unions reacted to news the official unemployment rate moved upwards because 291 000 people lost their jobs quarter-on-quarter, dropping the employed workforce to 16.8 million as of March this year.

Statistics South Africa released its latest unemployment figures yesterday, showing that there was an increase of 1.3 percentage points of people entering the workforce, or 532 000 more working-age South Africans, which resulted in there also being more unemployed people. That figure is now 8.2 million.

StatsSA also noted that those aged between 15 and 34 years remained the most vulnerable in the job market, with both work losses and an increase in unemployed youngsters pushing that unemployment rate up to 46.1% from 44.6% quarter-on-quarter.