NEVA MAKGETLA: Jobless figures reflect our destructive past, not poor data
It is more important to deal with the challenges of high unemployment than to crunch the numbers
24 June 2025 - 05:00
In the past few weeks leaders in both business and the government have contended that SA’s jobless figures somehow ignore informal employment. That argument is simply not true.
That said, the debates about the statistics are largely a dispute of interest masquerading as a debate about the facts. However, if we are looking for practical solutions to SA’s extraordinarily high joblessness and deep inequalities, framing the discourse around statistical methods is more of a distraction than a help. ..
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