Cosatu is skeptical of the job growth numbers released by Statistics SA on Tuesday‚ saying these could be “December part-time workers”.
Responding to the decline in joblessness from 27.1% in the third quarter of 2016 to 26.5% in the last quarter‚ the labour federation welcomed the positive change but questioned how it came about.
Spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said this slight decline in the official unemployment rate by 0‚6 of percentage was welcomed but it was still 2‚0% points higher compared to the same period last year.
“This report will be encouraging but we suspect that some of the employed workers reflected here in this report were December holiday part-time workers‚” Pamla said in a statement.
“A growing number of South African workers are employed in atypical jobs; sub contracting and casualisation is becoming the order of the day. All this means that huge numbers of our people are trapped in grinding poverty‚” he said.
Pamla said Cosatu reiterated its call for decisive state intervention in strategic sectors of the economy‚ including through strategic nationalisation and state ownership.
“The important and progressive policies that could tackle unemployment‚ inequality and poverty have to be implemented‚” he said.
Pamla said the federation also reiterated its position that the challenge of joblessness will never be addressed until the flawed structure of the South African economy was dismantled.
“This country needs to help support the small business sector in this country if we are to resolve the legacy of concentration and domination of the South African economy by a few monopolies‚” he said.
The union called for a deliberate effort to create more space for SA small firms to succeed and create jobs for the 9 million unemployed workers.
Stats SA said the employment growth was mainly driven by the services industry which grew by 73 000‚ followed by transport and manufacturing which grew by 46 000 and 44 000 respectively.
All other sectors reported employment growth quarter to quarter except mining and construction. which declined by 17 000 and 9000 respectively.
Cosatu skeptical about improvements in jobs figures
Cosatu is skeptical of the job growth numbers released by Statistics SA on Tuesday‚ saying these could be “December part-time workers”.
Responding to the decline in joblessness from 27.1% in the third quarter of 2016 to 26.5% in the last quarter‚ the labour federation welcomed the positive change but questioned how it came about.
Spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said this slight decline in the official unemployment rate by 0‚6 of percentage was welcomed but it was still 2‚0% points higher compared to the same period last year.
“This report will be encouraging but we suspect that some of the employed workers reflected here in this report were December holiday part-time workers‚” Pamla said in a statement.
“A growing number of South African workers are employed in atypical jobs; sub contracting and casualisation is becoming the order of the day. All this means that huge numbers of our people are trapped in grinding poverty‚” he said.
Pamla said Cosatu reiterated its call for decisive state intervention in strategic sectors of the economy‚ including through strategic nationalisation and state ownership.
“The important and progressive policies that could tackle unemployment‚ inequality and poverty have to be implemented‚” he said.
Pamla said the federation also reiterated its position that the challenge of joblessness will never be addressed until the flawed structure of the South African economy was dismantled.
“This country needs to help support the small business sector in this country if we are to resolve the legacy of concentration and domination of the South African economy by a few monopolies‚” he said.
The union called for a deliberate effort to create more space for SA small firms to succeed and create jobs for the 9 million unemployed workers.
Stats SA said the employment growth was mainly driven by the services industry which grew by 73 000‚ followed by transport and manufacturing which grew by 46 000 and 44 000 respectively.
All other sectors reported employment growth quarter to quarter except mining and construction. which declined by 17 000 and 9000 respectively.
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