According to a report by Statistics South Africa, unemployment rate in South Africa is at 24.9%, down from 25.2% in the first quarter. A staggering 79% of those unemployed are under the age of 35, with some 26,000 graduates unemployed.
The largest decreases in unemployment were seen in Limpopo with 1.7%, Mpumalanga with 1.4% and KwaZulu-Natal at 0.7%.
“Approximately 4.5 million persons were looking for work in the 2nd quarter of 2012, of which 3,0 million (or 67.8%) have been looking for work for a period of 1 year or longer,” read the report. “Furthermore, 58.6% of the job seekers did not have matric. Despite overall levels of unemployment declining year-on-year, the number of unemployed persons increased by 24,000 among those with tertiary education”.
Some economists blame the low unemployment rate on the low priority placed on job creation policies in the country
Although the construction and mining industries are said to be doing well, with 26,000 and 21,000 more people employed in each industry respectively, in recent weeks South African miners have taken to the streets in protest of low wages. Observers have described the strikes as highlighting income inequality in South Africa.
“Job creation and facilitation is a never ending challenge for South Africa”, said Theo Lagonikos, spokesperson for VHC. “To this end, we have partnered with IQ4News and leading media partners in South Africa to create the VJobs partner network, a virtual network to enable companies/recruiters and job seekers to find each other. We are extremely pleased to have the IQ4News job portal as part of this network”.
The IQ4News/VHC partnership means that South Africans at home and in the Diaspora, as well as those wishing to work in South Africa, will have access to regular updates on job opportunities in the country.
“We are very happy to launch our South Africa Job Portal at this very crucial time in the employment scene in South Africa,” said Dr Yemisi Akinbobola, Editor-in-Chief, IQ4News. “Access to jobs and the creation of jobs is vital to the economy of every country, and we hope that through our new jobs portal, we are contributing our bit to the South African economy”.
The IQ4News South Africa Jobs Portal can be accessed at www.iq4news.com/joblisting/south-africa/za.