After Tongaat Hulett: Where are the new jobs going to come from?

WHEN Tongaat Hulett announced restructuring that could cost as many as 40,000 jobs, it was not merely a corporate failure.

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It was a structural alarm. In a country where official unemployment exceeds 30% — and youth unemployment remains persistently above 50% — the loss of tens of thousands of jobs is more than an economic shock. It exposes a deeper question:At the same time, artificial intelligence is accelerating labour market disruption faster than policymakers anticipated. The convergence of industrial decline and technological automation is reshaping employment at unprecedented speed.

AI Is Compressing White-Collar Employment

Across boardrooms and _professional services firms, artificial intelligence is already performing tasks once reserved for highly trained white-collar workers.

AI systems are:

Drafting contracts

Analysing financial models

Producing legal research

Generating marketing strategies

Writing software code

Creating technical documentation

Global research shows that automation disproportionately affects routine cognitive roles — administrative tasks, entry-level analysis, and repeatable knowledge functions. The productivity gains are real.

But productivity gains often reduce workforce requirements. Fewer people are needed to produce the same output. This is the structural shift South Africa must confront. If job creation depends primarily on expanding office-based employment — while Al increases efficiency — unemployment will remain entrenched.

The future of mass employment is no longer concentrated in white-collar expansion. It is shifting toward technical infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, energy systems, and skilled trades — sectors that remain resistant to automation.

The Global Demand Signal: Skilled Labour Is Scarce