Johannesburg | Thursday
SOUTH Africa’s jobless rate is still rising as new jobs are not being created fast enough to keep pace with the growing number of young people entering the market, the government said on Wednesday.
In a five-year study covering changes which have taken place between 1995 and 1999, Statistics South Africa said that according to an ”expanded” definition the jobless rate reached 36,2% at the end of that period.
It was the first time the government had estimated the jobless rate for 15-65 year-olds at that level. The official jobless rate had risen to 23,5% from 15,7% in 1995, it said.
”South Africa’s population has the typical pyramid structure for a developing market — there are a lot of young people who are unable to find jobs,” Stats SA chief director of Research and Development Ros Hirschowitz said.
But the study showed there were wide discrepancies in the official jobless rate between different types of people — ranging between 35% for African women and 4,4 % for white men.
The wide-ranging study was based on estimates showing the population grew from 40,6-million in October 1996 — when the first post-apartheid census was taken — to 43,3-million in October 1999.
It showed that the percentage of Africans in the overall population had risen to 77,8% in 1999 from 77,1% in 1995.
The percentage of people classified as white fell to 10,5% from 11,2% in 1995, although overall numbers also grew.
Formal education was now reaching 94% of children between the ages of seven to fifteen years, the study showed. But it noted that very few pursued tertiary education.
The proportion of households living in formal dwellings crept up to 70% in 1999 from 66% in 1995, while the number with access to clean piped water rose to 83% from 79%.
The proportion of households with a telephone or mobile telephone rose to 35% from 29%, while the use of public health-care facilities increased to 69% from 67% – Reuters