UASA Media Release: 17 May 2024
2024 UASA SAER and UASA/BMR Employment Index
Statement by Abigail Moyo, spokesperson of the trade union UASA:
The 2024 UASA South African Employment Report (SAER) and 2nd UASA/BMR Employment Index (EI) elaborate on the various economic challenges South Africa faces and the upside opportunities to grow and improve the labour market.
Prof Carel van Aardt, Research Director and Head of the Market Intelligence Research Division of the Bureau of Market Research (BMR) and Ms Jacolize Meiring, Senior Researcher and Head of the Personal Finance Research Division of the BMR presented the 2024 SAER and UASA/BMR EI at Kloofzicht Lodge and Spa in Muldersdrift earlier today. The analysis focused on labour market issues underlying the challenges of low job creation and high unemployment levels in South Africa.
Discussing the influence of 4IR on the future of the South African labour market, particularly in the realms of digitalisation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, it was pointed out that employees are generally not equipped to fully adapt to the job changes brought about by the 4IR, and that this hampers the potential for efficiencies, product development, market penetration, sales, businesses, and the broader economy in the country.
“Over the longer term, 4IR will negatively impact not only lower-level skilled jobs in South Africa but also higher-skilled jobs such as accounting, finance, law, management, and entertainment,” Meiring explained.
Among other key factors, the economic outlook and technological changes underscore the necessity of reskilling the labour force. The BMR’s research outcomes reveal that South Africa continues to grapple with numerous acute labour market challenges, including:
- Low job creation rates result from, among other things, slow economic growth, a lack of elasticity in the relationship between employment and economic growth, and low skill levels among those who are actively seeking employment.
- The labour market’s limited capacity to absorb the unemployed is due to low economic growth rates, low elasticity levels between employment and economic growth, potential employers’ preference for capital over labour, an inflexible labour market, and the low skill levels of the population actively seeking work.
- Low growth in real compensationresults from low levels of entrepreneurship, the economy’s incapacity to absorb the unemployed, and poor job creation, all of which contribute to high rates of inequality and poverty.
- A large number of positions that non-tertiary qualified workers would typically fill are instead occupied by those with a tertiary-level education, resulting in a less-than-ideal level of non-tertiary qualified worker absorption into the labour market. This is because there is a mismatch between the labour supply and demand regarding skill quality and skill mix.
“Several labour policy initiatives to resolve these labour market issues have not always yielded the best results because these initiatives fail to closely follow various labour market policies that many other developing countries have successfully adopted,” Van Aardt said.
Concluding the presentation, it was emphasised that the government must foster an atmosphere that not only encourages economic expansion but also draws foreign direct investment to South Africa and provides chances for private capital to invest with the hope of making a profit and generating jobs. “The government’s role in fostering sustainable economic growth and employment creation cannot be overstated, nor can it be separated from the importance of infrastructure development and maintenance and the effective delivery of high-quality services,” Van Aardt said. It is crucial for all of us, as stakeholders, to understand and actively support the local economy.
The latest official unemployment rate in South Africa is recorded as 32.9%, painting a worrying scenario, with youth aged between 15 and 34 years continuing to have the highest unemployment rate (45.5%), with little hope for better jobs. Approximately 3.6 million out of 10.3 million young people aged 15-24 years were not in employment, education or training. UASA encourages its members, fellow South Africans, stakeholders, and employers to invest and work towards skills development to grow the local market and support small businesses. Let’s all purchase locally produced products to help increase brand visibility and strive to empower the young people to actively participate in the labour market.
For further enquiries or to set up a personal interview, contact Abigail Moyo at 065 170 0162 .