THE government’s undertaking to slash its wage bill was met with the usual incredulity, but it appears the state has done just that, with it being the biggest contributor to job losses in 2016.Statistics SA’s quarterly financial statistics show that the government has managed to lower real employment cost growth by more than 28% year on year from its peak in the second quarter of 2015. This equates to about R8.5bn in employee cost-related savings in the first half of 2016 compared with a year ago."This is a significant achievement given the higher inflation environment," says BNP Paribas Securities economist Jeffrey Schultz. "Though we had expressed scepticism at how the Treasury [would] reduce its wage bill, the results over the past 12 months are ... encouraging."Schultz’s sentiments chime with the assurances given to Parliament earlier in October by Public Service and Administration Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi that the government was on track to meet its target of cutting R25bn fr...
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