Programme Director
Her Worship, Councillor Keneilwe Motsepe our Host
Ministers, Deputy Ministers and MEC’s here present
Traditional Leadership here Present
Leaders of our Social Partners Business and Labour
Leaders of our Community Formations
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I am very grateful to stand before you this morning to share our thoughts and contribution, small as it may be, towards ameliorating joblessness and by extension poverty.
We take our queue from the vision 2030 as articulated in the National Development Plan (NDP) (which highlights unemployment, poverty and inequality as the most difficult challenges which require urgent attention. It also points out the lack of access to employment opportunity, as one of the factors that compounds the ability of job-seekers, especially those in rural areas, to actively search for jobs.
I have no intention to bore you with the recent labour and employment statistics as these have been in the public domain for over a month already, but please allow me to paint, albeit briefly, the current state of play purely to demonstrate the extent of the challenge and why we are doing this.
Programme Director, According to 2015 World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends, global unemployment will continue to rise in the coming years, as the global economy’s slower growth, economic turbulences and widening inequalities. The report argues that by 2019, more than 212 million people globally, will be out of work, up from the current 201 million in 2015.
Further the report shows that more than 61 million jobs have been lost since the start of the global crisis in 2008 and the projections show that unemployment will continue to rise until the end of the decade. This means the jobs crisis is going to persist at least until 2020.
It is also evident that young workers aged between 15 and 24 are particularly the hardest hit by the crisis, with a global youth unemployment rate of almost 13 per cent in 2014 and a further increase expected in coming years. By contrast, older workers have fared relatively well since the start of the global financial crisis of 2008.
It is however, unacceptable Ladies and Gentlemen, that almost half of the world’s workers lack access to basic necessities and decent work and the situation is even worse for women.” The report also points out that income inequality will continue to widen, with the richest 10 per cent earning 30 to 40 per cent of total income while the poorest 10 per cent will earn between 2 and 7 per cent of total income.
These trends are particularly worrying as they have a propensity to undermine trust in governments and keep the risk of social unrest high. There is empirical evidence that social unrests are particularly acute in countries and regions where youth unemployment is high or rising rapidly.
Coming closer home, the recent data posted by Statistics South Africa in February this year, shows that the working-age population grew from 35.6 million in December 2014 to 36.3 million in December 2015; Out of this, only 16 million people are employed; 5.2 million unemployed and 15.1 million not economically active, thus resulting in an unemployment rate of 24,5%, the absorption rate of 44,2% and a labour force participation rate of 58.5% as at end December 2015.
The increases in the number of employed people by some 250 000 quarter to quarter, provides a welcome relief, it is by no means enough to make a visible dent on the levels of unemployment in our country which according to Stats-SA, sits at 5.2 million.
The report also shows some disturbing trend that whilst the informal sector employment grew in 6 consecutive quarters, for the first time in Quarter 4, the informal sector recorded a decline of some 37 000 in employment levels.
I am painting this picture in order to illustrate the magnitude and the complexity of the challenge we face as a nation and that there is no “magic wand” that will make this problem go away overnight. Tenacity and thought leadership is the main ingredient that should find expression in the interventions we craft and the vigilance we employ to drive implementation.
Fact; Agriculture, Mining and Tourisms sectors are the main drivers of growth and jobs in this Province. Therefore it follows that giving special attention to these sectors is not an option but a must do. It is notably important that the largest quarterly employment gains were observed in three Provinces in the country and North West was one of them.
This suggests that the efforts of the Province to deal with unemployment are paying some dividends, albeit not enough to make a significant dent commensurate with the levels of joblessness in the province.
Whilst the citizens will look up to government for help, it is generally understood that government alone will not be able to reverse unemployment without other social partners playing their part.
It is therefore for this reason that government has introduced various public employment enhancing schemes and poverty alleviation initiatives to deal with the situation.
Ladies and Gentlemen; We are here today to demonstrate what we are doing as government and to call on our social partners to join forces with us. The Jobs Fair initiative is the platform where all of us can contribute to addressing the challenge of joblessness in general and to showcase various public and private initiatives that are designed to enhance the employability of job-seekers.
This platform seeks to create a direct interface between those looking for job opportunities and the prospective employers. This we do as a response to the fact that, it is often difficult and costly for job-seekers to access employment and training opportunities.
I hope you will agree with me that the fight against unemployment, poverty and inequality cannot be a monopoly of any one social partner; therefore it should be fought by all and on all fronts. Every South African deserve to be given the opportunity to find a job, which is vital in bringing a real meaning to our hard fought freedom, dignity and a chance to better one’s life.
No one disputes the fact that lasting victory over poverty and hunger requires the creation of decent work opportunities and sustainable livelihoods for all our people.
South Africa‘s democratic elections from 1994 to 2014 were about the aspirations and collective desire for a better South Africa and a better life for all. These elections were about a journey to bring an end to the legacy of apartheid and to build a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. Not for a few, but for all.
I submit that decent work, is the foundation of the fight against poverty and inequality, and its promotion should be the cornerstone of all our efforts. Decent work embraces both the need for more jobs and for better quality jobs. The creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods remain at the core of the ANC government's agenda.
The majority of South Africans have no other place they can call home other than South Africa. If South Africa is in trouble, they do not have a holiday home in some exotic Island in the middle of an ocean somewhere. They literally have nowhere else to run to. South Africa is all what we have, therefore building and defending it, is not an option but a duty.
We recognise that a society based on poverty for many, and prosperity for a few, carries the biggest risk to all of us. During the platinum strike of the recent past I heard one worker representative pose a very sharp question, and it went something like this; “If you won't let us dream we won't let you sleep".
What happens when real opportunity for everyone earning below the poverty line, evaporates entirely? What happens when people can't find decent paying jobs that they can afford to live on? What happens when people have had enough?
These questions are difficult, but as a collective in this room we can provide answers to these questions and this jobs fair is a step in that direction I guess. For this to succeed, we need to stop the blame game, and demonstrate that we are indeed committed to the future of this country.
The National Development Plan (NDP) proposes taking concrete steps to strengthen the functioning of the labour market to improve skills acquisition, match job seekers and job openings, and reduce conflict. This initiative seeks to translate this NDP proposition, into a reality.
The NDP goes on to point out that this objective requires strong leadership to drive implementation, and to convince all South Africans of the need to make mutual sacrifices for longer-term benefits of the nation.
Ladies and Gentlemen; today is the test of whether or not we are ready to make those mutual sacrifices that the NDP puts forward. I am very pleased that a number of businesses and public entities are here to interact with the Job seekers and I hope that job-seekers will walk away from this event, with letters inviting them for interviews, internship opportunities and other such opportunities.
I also hope that the job-seekers themselves will walk away from here, with a better sense of what is on offer and will take steps to position themselves for those opportunities.
From the Department of Labour perspective, this event marks the beginning of a journey that we should all undertake for the public good and the future of our nation. This initiative Ladies and Gentlemen, resonates with the objectives of the Employment Services Act of 2014, which provides the legal framework to provide for public employment services, the establishment of schemes to promote the employment of young work seekers and other vulnerable persons, and schemes to assist employees in distressed companies to retain employment.
Our youth is becoming restless and given that about 50% of them in South Africa are struggling to secure gainful employment, the urgency of making these initiatives work, cannot be over-emphasised.
Programme Director, According to the National Development Plan, South Africans should have access to education and training of the highest quality by 2030, leading to significantly improved learning outcomes and employability of our people.
The graduates of South Africa's universities and colleges should have the skills and knowledge to meet the present and future needs of the economy and society. South Africa has set itself the goals of eradicating poverty, reducing inequality, growing the economy by an average of 5,4 per cent, and cutting the unemployment rate to 6 per cent by 2030.
Education, training and innovation are critical to the attainment of these goals. The importance of schooling and educational attainment of the labour force is increasingly being recognised as a factor which enhances labour market flexibility and facilitates structural adjustment, as well as one which improves the adaptability of societies at large.
There is empirical evidence that Provinces with large rural populations are predominantly where jobseekers lack the resources to actively search for employment. The unemployment rate for females tends to be higher than for males, a consistent trend across the different age cohorts Those aged 15–19 and 20–24 years, have the highest unemployment rates of 67% and 53% respectively. There is also a significant gender bias in unemployment trends for young people.
The decomposition of unemployment by race, reveals that the vast majority of unemployed young people are Black.
The unemployment rate for Blacks is consistently higher than for all other population groups in all youth cohorts, with the most vulnerable group being the group aged 15–24 years. In relative terms, unemployment is highest for the 15–19 and 20–24 age cohorts at all levels of educational attainment.
There are very high levels of unemployment among even those who have completed their secondary and tertiary education. This underscores the need to prepare young people to enter the labour market, both in terms of formal education and soft skills.
Still important to note however, is that on aggregate, for the entire 15–34 age cohort, the unemployment rate decreases as levels of educational attainment increase, this supports the view that education, particularly the attainment of tertiary qualifications, does enhance access to the labour market.
In both absolute and relative terms, there is a distinct racial character to unemployment, which is concentrated in the Black majority. The unemployment rate is highest for those who have not completed their secondary studies, as well as those who have completed only primary education.
It is inevitable therefore that poverty, as arguably the closest cousin to unemployment, whilst it occurs across all races, it tends to visit black people in a more profound way.
One Developmental Economist Commentator once remarked that; it does not matter how to dissect the South African statistics, you will arrive at the conclusion that the colour of unemployment and poverty, is Black.
We call, on all our social partners as we step out to tour the exhibition floor, to join hands with us in order to enhance these efforts.
We ask all of you to;
- Support the job-matching process through, for instance, providing employment services, job search assistance, provision of information on the job market, and pre-screening of candidates.
- Enhance labour supply through training and retraining
- Reduce supply through increased intakes in quality educational institutions; for example, by expanding opportunities for vocational training and providing “second-chance” opportunities for young people who have dropped out of mainstream education.
- Create demand through public works, enterprise creation and self-employment.
- Change the structure of demand through employment support measures and affirmative action.
In conclusion and on behalf of the government and the leadership of the Department of Labour, we are indeed grateful that you could join us today in this important initiative and we hope that you will stay the course. Whilst there are some notable achievements to date, there is still a long way to go if the evidence at our disposal is anything to go by.
Tomorrow is the last voter registration weekend, so let’s all go out there and register in order to safeguard our hard earned liberation. Of course 2016 marks the 20th Anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa in 1996, therefore registering to vote, will be a fitting tribute to the achievements of our democracy to date
I thank you.
