Staff Reporter
At least 119 000 people lost their jobs between April and June in the Free State as most of the economy ground to a complete halt under the tight restrictions of the national lockdown, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) has said.
In its latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Stats SA says only 638 000 people in the province were left with jobs compared to about 756 000 in the previous quarter.
However, the number of the unemployed in the province dropped by 257 000 to 215 000 from 472 000 in the first quarter.
This does not mean there were less unemployed people in the province.
The drop is only technical as there were less people fitting the official definition of unemployment because there were less people looking for employment during that period under the national lockdown.
The official unemployment rate for the province dropped from 38.4 percent to 25.3 percent.
The expanded unemployment figure was also down from 44.5 percent to 41.2 percent.
The technicality has been criticised by some experts who feel the latest jobs data is not a true reflection of the situation in the country.
Central University of Technology senior economics lecturer Mgcinazwe Zwane told The Free Stater that the figures do not make sense and should be rejected.
“I disagree with those figures . . . that’s just window dressing,” said Zwane.
“This is just a fabrication of facts. COVID-19 has had a huge impact on our economy and it may take us up to five years to recover.
“Many people have lost jobs and several projects have been put on hold, so I don’t understand who they are trying to fool with such statistics. This is not the time for technicalities.”
Official unemployment refers to persons aged 15-64 years old who were not employed during the reference period but were actively looking for work or tried to start a business over the past month.
The persons were available for work or to start a business during the week of the survey.
The expanded definition of unemployment includes people that are available to work but have not made an effort to find work over the past month or are just discouraged to search.
A discouraged work-seeker is a person who was not employed during the reference period but wanted to work and was available to work or start a business.
The person would have failed to take active steps to find work over the past month because there were no jobs available in the area, was unable to find work requiring his or her skills or lost hope of finding any kind of work.
Stats SA acting chief director for labour statistics Malerato Mosiane said in a telephone interview they met with a lot of challenges when gathering the information but the figures are relevant and reflect the situation on the ground in line with the guidelines of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
“It was very important that we do the survey because people wanted to know what’s happening in the country. There is nothing wrong with the figures. People can use them,” said Mosiane.
“The figures we have produced are not very different from what has been produced by other countries that have been affected by COVID-19 the same way as South Africa. We followed what the ILO has done,” she said.
Stats SA said data in this survey was collected using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing also known as CATI and not the usual face-to-face interviews due to the national lockdown.
It said as a result data could not be collected from a full sample but only from households for which they had contact numbers and they had to make several adjustments to ensure balance.
Zwane insisted that the situation in the country is desperate and urgent measures are needed to revive the economy, particularly in the Free State.
“Right now, the Free State doesn’t have any major production to write home about,” he said.
“We need to revive the mines and intensify agricultural production. The zama-zamas in Welkom should be given licences so that they can mine legally and contribute to the economy. The Northern Cape has done that and it’s working.
“We should focus on poultry and fish farming because we have the Vaal River and the Gariep Dam here.
“Poultry doesn’t require a lot of water and we can actually produce enough to export.
“Our people need long term employment. They cannot continue relying on short term projects.”
Nationally, the official unemployment rate dropped from 30.1 percent in the first quarter to 23.3 percent in the second quarter.
The expanded unemployment rate for the country increased by 2.3 percentage points to 42 percent.
Employment decreased in all sectors in the country with the formal sector losing 1.2 million or 10.8 percent while the informal sector shed 640 000 or 21.9 percent of the jobs.
Private households shed 311 000 or 23.6 percent and employment in agriculture declined by 66 000 or 7.6 percent.
There are now 14.1 million people employed in the country while 4.3 million are officially unemployed.
Using the broader unemployment definition, at least 10.3 million people are without jobs.
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