About 14 000 jobs were created every month last year compared with 10 000 over the previous years, but that was still not enough reduce the unemployment rate, economist Mike Schussler said on Thursday.
”We need to make that a lot quicker to make dents in the unemployment situation,” he said.
Schussler, chief economist at T-Sec and author of the South African Employment Report, was speaking at its launch in Johannesburg.
The report examined 1 600 annual reports from 70 companies and surveyed 3,9-million people in the public and private sectors since 2002.
”For the first time, we have got a much better idea of the employment situation in South Africa,” he said.
South Africa’s unemployment growth was 2,7% in 2004. This was ”fairly brisk” compared with the 1,9% of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.
According to the report, the average formal-sector worker earned R9 313 per month in 2004, of which 20% was in the form of social security, Schussler said, adding that this was ”pretty fair”.
Out of an adult population of 29-million South Africans, 6,5-million were employed in the formal sector, and between three and four million in the informal and domestic sectors. A further 1,25-million were employed in the farming sector.
Large companies paid average monthly salaries of about R11 000 per month, while people in the informal sector earned a monthly average of R1 300.
The mostly lucrative sector in which to work was utilities, which, at more than R19 000 per month, paid about four times as much as the construction sector.
The highest-paying companies’ monthly salaries stood at R96 000, Schussler said. This was the company average. Companies at the bottom of the scale paid R1 300 a month.
Employees at state-owned companies earned roughly double the salaries of small companies, or R14 000 as opposed to R6 000.
Unemployed South Africans received six months’ worth of benefits. The average in OECD countries is 18 months. Belgium has unlimited unemployment benefits.
”In South Africa, the benefits are low and the taxes are high,” said Schussler. — Sapa