South Africa’s employment rate has grown 3% over the past four quarters but that is not enough to halve unemployment by 2010, said economist Mike Schussler in Pretoria on Wednesday.
Addressing journalists at a Solidarity union meeting, Schussler nevertheless painted a rosy picture of the South African economy.
”The job market has shown phenomenal growth,” he said, explaining that these are the best figures since 1982.
He said the country has been losing jobs over the past 20 years.
He said it is not possible to pinpoint the exact turnaround but that it had happened somewhere in 2003.
He said this growth can be attributed to low interest rates that have led to higher fixed investments and a boom in the domestic manufacturing sectors of the economy.
”Employment and fixed capital normally run together [on a graph] but in South Africa these separated in the 1980s and have only just rejoined,” Schussler said.
But, he said, the increase in employment can also be attributed to the fact that more companies are employing part-time workers instead of full-time staff.
He said it is a trend started in The Netherlands and it has spread to other countries, including the United Kingdom.
Schussler noted, however, that he does not believe the current growth is enough to meet the government’s target of halving unemployment by 2010.
He said that in order for this to happen, growth of 5% and higher would need to be achieved. This, he said, has not been witnessed in the past 30 years. — Sapa