The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes the slight uptick in employment registered by Statistics SA in the fourth quarter of 2024.
On Wednesday, Stats SA announced a 0.1% increase in employment equivalent to 12 000 jobs in last quarter of 2024. This is despite a loss of 91 000 jobs year on year from December 2023 to December 2024.
According to the latest Quarterly Employment Statistics the marginal increase in employment comprises 10 000 full-time jobs plus 2 000 part-time jobs. This is a slight departure from the norm where retailers and the hospitality sector usually hire more part-time workers over the festive season to cater for increased customer volumes.
The trade and business services sectors are responsible for the increase in employment, while the mining, construction and manufacturing industries lost jobs.
Given South Africa's expanded unemployment rate is stubbornly stuck at 41.6%, COSATU welcomes every job added to the economy. We hope to see the trend continue into 2025, but we remain concerned about governments' plan to increase VAT by 0.5% as it risks slowing growth.
Whilst welcoming each new job, we cannot celebrate a 41.6% unemployment rate. This must be a reminder to move faster to capacitate the state, fix our SOEs, invest in infrastructure and stimulate growth. We cannot normalise such high levels of unemployment.
