FRIDAY, 3.30PM:
THERE is concern in business that government is not taking a lead in creating employment.
The issue came into the spotlight on Thursday as organised labour and the Democratic Party unveiled their perspectives on job creation.
Saying that the long-anticipated jobs summit will happen “towards the end of the year”, Labour Minister Tito Mboweni said that insufficient new jobs are being created, while certain economic sectors are losing jobs.
The DP proposes raising money for a training voucher scheme by scrapping unsuccessful job creation programmes and the 6500-strong labour bureaucracy, and raising foreign funds. The voucher scheme would allocate a R3000 voucher to 500&000 young unemployed each year for seven years.
Labour, in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), said this week that if government is serious about job creation, it needs to shift from an economic growth policy to an employment growth policy, as present approaches show “little sign of working”. Public works programmes cannot be short-term employment solutions.
The labour caveat was that job creation must not be achieved at the expense of the quality of jobs.