Ilse Fredericks And Gershwin Wanneburg
3 December 2008
Job prospects for matrics finishing exams on Wednesday look grim, and there are a few industries offering opportunities.
Dawie Roodt, an economist at Efficient Group, said young people's inexperience would count against them - not least because of the current economic lull.
"The unemployment rate in South Africa is probably between 20 and 30 percent.
"Unemployment among matrics is at least at that level, but they've got fewer skills and less work experience," he said.
"You can easily put their job prospects at 50 percent. That's a conservative estimate. You can take another 10 percent off that."
Roodt said the more than 45 000 matriculants in the Western Cape stood perhaps the best chance in the services industry, including hotels and restaurants. These are more stable and generally not as badly affected by economic woes.
Construction is also a good bet. Even so, the going would not be easy, said Sanlam economist Jac Laubscher.
Construction has been fairly resilient to the economic slump, but Laubscher said the manual jobs on offer might not be suited to matrics - nor would they be qualified for other technical posts.
"You don't have to be a genius to figure out that it's going to be a tough environment for matrics to find jobs," he said.
"Only the public sector has been creating jobs. Matrics looking for work in the public sector are in a better position than those entering the private sector."
Statistics bear testimony to the dire situation facing school leavers. About 49 000 jobs were lost in the Western Cape in the second quarter of 2008, according to Statistics SA.
The manufacturing, agriculture, construction and trade sectors axed 11 000, 19 000, 4 000 and 15 000 workers respectively.
Yet there is still some hope.
CallingtheCape, a call centre promotion body, says that 2 000 to 3 000 jobs could be opening up in the industry in 2009.
To make matriculants more employable, CallingtheCape also offers training programmes.
Gayleen Baxter, chief operating officer of recruitment company Kelly, said those unable to study after finishing high school should find ways to gain job experience.
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