Rise in jobless points to lack of growth
The unemployment rate rose to highest level since 2003, Stats SA survey shows, indicating lack of investment
Unemployment in SA is rising faster than the rate at which the economy is creating jobs, suggesting a serious lack of economic growth and fixed investment spending by the government and the private sector. The jobless rate rose to 27.1% — the highest since 2003 — during the third quarter of 2016, despite employment gains in several sectors. The sectors were mainly the construction sector, which added 104,000 jobs in the second and third quarters, and trade and agriculture. During the third quarter 455,000 jobs were lost on a year-on-year comparison (239,000 quarter on quarter). There were 5.8-million people reported as unemployed during the third quarter of 2016. The number of employed people grew by only 5,000 year-on-year to 15.8-million people during the third quarter, according to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, which was published on Tuesday. The expanded unemployment rate, which includes those who wanted work but did not look for work, dropped 0.1 percentage point quarter-o...
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