TRADE unions and labour research analysts have rejected the results of the latest Statistics South Africa annual survey, which reported that the unemployment rate had fallen by 1.9 percent. Claire Horton, a senior economic researcher at the National Labour and Economic Development Institute said that the results were unreliable as current definitions of unemployment were not accurate enough. She said that she would have been surprised if the results were accurate taking into consideration recent job losses in the formal sector and continued poor economic growth. Also questioning the results of the survey, was COSATU’s head of economic research, Dr Neva Makgelta who said that it was confusing that formal sector continued to shed jobs but the report found a reduction in job losses. The Stats SA survey reported that the number of unemployed had remained constant in 1998 and 1999 and that employed people rose from 9.3 million to 10.4 million over same period.
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