Government is not succeeding in making a major dent in unemployment in the Eastern Cape according to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey as released by Statistics South Africa today.
Although the number of jobs in the second quarter compared with the first quarter of 2012 has increased by 19 000, which is some good news, the unemployment rate in the Eastern Cape has increased from 28.3% to 28.6%. This is due to the labour force increasing by 36 000.
The expanded definition of unemployment for the Eastern Cape now sits at 42.4%.
There are 950 000 people looking for jobs in the province, with 1 298 0000 million employed.
Under a DA-government, things would be a lot better, because we have a plan for jobs. This includes:
- Providing young job seekers with a youth wage subsidy;
- Providing young jobs seekers with an “opportunity voucher” to fund a small business;
- Review red tape across government to make it easier to start a business;
- Set up job zones with tax breaks for companies to invest in them; and
- Improve skills development by providing a better education system.
Bobby Stevenson
