GIULIETTA TALEVI: Don’t be fooled — this level of unemployment isn’t normal
The latest jobless figures have once again been met with hardly a reaction from civil society, let alone the government. Have we become so inured to the human crisis that continues to play out around us?
03 June 2021 - 08:55
Who wants a job anyway? Well, all the desperate job seekers in SA do. They now constitute the 7.2-million unemployed — which is 8,000 more people than at the end of last year.
On the narrow definition of unemployment, 32.6% are without work — which is the highest since Stats SA began producing its quarterly labour force survey in 2008. But if you look at the expanded definition, which includes those who’ve given up looking, this unemployment number balloons to 43.2%. Dig deeper, and you’ll see that, horrifically, 74% of the youth have no job and, at this rate, scant hope of ever being employed...
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