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Johannesburg - In February, President Jacob Zuma
declared 2011 "the year of the job" but it has turned out to be the
opposite, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday.
This followed the release of the latest Adcorp Employment Index indicating that employment declined by 2.1% during August.
"At a time when we should be turning the jobs crisis around, we are sliding further backwards," said Ian Ollis, DA spokesperson on labour.
Ollis said the government needed to act now if it was to prevent further job losses.
"This much is clear from the Adcorp index, which also shows that many employed South Africans are not being fully utilised in their jobs. This raises the spectre of further job-shedding as companies try to improve cost efficiency in this difficult economic climate."
Ollis added that there was so much the government could do to improve the prospects of unemployed people in SA.
"A DA-run government would implement a youth wage subsidy, would reform labour laws to be more employment friendly, would boost small business development by giving a tax holiday to newly established small businesses, would increase investment in infrastructure maintenance and development, would provide opportunity vouchers for young people and would give tax rebates for skills development programmes."
When the president said that 2011 would be "the year of the job", he raised the expectations of millions of unemployed South Africans, Ollis noted.
"Since then, he has dashed their hopes by failing to make the tough choices that would grow our economy and create millions of jobs. What will he say to the jobless when he stands before parliament in February next year?"
The Adcorp Employment Index for August also showed that the employment decline at an annual rate of 2.1% meant that 49 306 workers had lost their jobs during the month.
Employment declined most sharply in the manufacturing (19.9%), mining (19.3%) and construction (16.0%) sectors, despite sharply rising export prices for commodities and basic beneficiated manufactured products, the index found.
In line with the declines in the manufacturing and mining sectors, employment of machine operators declined by 5.95% and of technical professionals by 3.8%.
Employment by government continued to rise (6.2%), with the public sector now accounting for all job creation in the economy for 2011 as a whole.
The index furthermore showed that the unofficial sector continued to create jobs, employing 16 917 additional people in August, contributing to the so-called informalisation of the South African workforce.
This followed the release of the latest Adcorp Employment Index indicating that employment declined by 2.1% during August.
"At a time when we should be turning the jobs crisis around, we are sliding further backwards," said Ian Ollis, DA spokesperson on labour.
Ollis said the government needed to act now if it was to prevent further job losses.
"This much is clear from the Adcorp index, which also shows that many employed South Africans are not being fully utilised in their jobs. This raises the spectre of further job-shedding as companies try to improve cost efficiency in this difficult economic climate."
Ollis added that there was so much the government could do to improve the prospects of unemployed people in SA.
"A DA-run government would implement a youth wage subsidy, would reform labour laws to be more employment friendly, would boost small business development by giving a tax holiday to newly established small businesses, would increase investment in infrastructure maintenance and development, would provide opportunity vouchers for young people and would give tax rebates for skills development programmes."
When the president said that 2011 would be "the year of the job", he raised the expectations of millions of unemployed South Africans, Ollis noted.
"Since then, he has dashed their hopes by failing to make the tough choices that would grow our economy and create millions of jobs. What will he say to the jobless when he stands before parliament in February next year?"
The Adcorp Employment Index for August also showed that the employment decline at an annual rate of 2.1% meant that 49 306 workers had lost their jobs during the month.
Employment declined most sharply in the manufacturing (19.9%), mining (19.3%) and construction (16.0%) sectors, despite sharply rising export prices for commodities and basic beneficiated manufactured products, the index found.
In line with the declines in the manufacturing and mining sectors, employment of machine operators declined by 5.95% and of technical professionals by 3.8%.
Employment by government continued to rise (6.2%), with the public sector now accounting for all job creation in the economy for 2011 as a whole.
The index furthermore showed that the unofficial sector continued to create jobs, employing 16 917 additional people in August, contributing to the so-called informalisation of the South African workforce.
