Staff Reporter
At least 86 000 people landed jobs in the Free State between July and September this year but more people in the province are without jobs as the official unemployment rate has jumped from 25.3 percent to 35.5 percent.
The Quarterly Labour Force Survey released by Statistics South Africa on Thursday indicates that the province now has 723 000 employed people compared to 638 000 people in the second quarter.
However, the number of those without jobs increased by 182 000 from 215 000 in the second quarter to 398 000 in the third quarter.
The province now has the second highest unemployment rate in the country, with the Eastern Cape topping with 45.8 percent.
The expanded unemployment rate for the Free State — which includes discouraged job seekers — is now 42.6 percent following an increase of 1.4 percentage points.
Central University of Technology senior economics lecturer Mgcinazwe Zwane said some decisions by the government have contributed to the worsening unemployment situation.
“It’s unfortunate the powers-that-be are not listening to experts,” he said by telephone.
Zwane said while the closing of the economy was essential to curb the spread of COVID-19, there was a need to balance it with saving jobs.
“COVID-19 has worsened the situation. Many companies had to lay off staff. No one anticipated it,” he said.
“Government’s directive to shut down the economy mainly focused on saving lives at the expense of employment . . .
“Many people have been laid off because many companies cannot afford to pay workers.
“The situation is not likely to change till a vaccine is found.”
The economics lecturer said unemployment could be worsened by the government’s decision to freeze salary increases for civil servants as they will have less buying power.
“Those civil servants will not have much money to spend and this will affect the businesses where they normally spend their money,” he explained.
“Government could cause more job cuts as a result of this because companies won’t be making much money.”
The Free State has a working age population of just over 1.9 people – these are people aged between 15 and 64 years.
South Africa’s official unemployment rate rose to 30.8 percent in the third quarter from 23.3 percent.
Nedbank’s economic unit believes the country’s unemployment rate could remain high for some time.
“The unemployment rate is likely to stay at current levels for some time as South African unemployment is structurally sticky above the 25 percent mark,” the unit said.
“The only thing that can change the structurally high unemployment rate would be a concerted push to fix the country’s structural challenges regarding skills as well as other policy issues and this will be a long-term endeavour . . .”
The expanded unemployment rate for the country is 43.1 percent.
The number of unemployed people in the country increased by 2.2 million to 6.5 million in the third quarter from 4.3 million in the second.