Govt job target 'unreachable'

Cape Town - The rate at which the economy shed jobs in the first quarter of 2009 puts the government's promise to create 500 000 job opportunities by the end of the year in the realm of the impossible, says an expert.

Chief economist at Pan African Investment and Research Iraj Abedian said in this climate it's definitely unfeasible to even think the country will reach half the target by December.

On Tuesday, official data confirmed the economy shed about 179 000 jobs in the first three months of 2009.

While it hadn't commented on the latest employment figures at the time of going to press, government has remained committed to its target in the face of a barrage of criticism which followed President Jacob Zuma's state of the nation address. In his speech, he announced 500 000 job opportunities would be created by December.

Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge said this target, and the promise to create four million job opportunities by 2014, would be driven by the extended public works programme and a R787bn infrastructure drive. He labelled the target as conservative and said it could easily be exceeded.

Professor of economics Wolfgang Thomas said the 500 000 target is "poorly defined" and relies on the effect of special projects. It fails to take into account the rate at which the economy was shedding jobs.

Also, staffing group Adcorp's employment index showed employment is only expected to grow by the middle of 2010.

Abedian said a network of projects needs to be in place countrywide to generate substantial job opportunities through government programmes.

"One must not underestimate the systems needed to be in place before public works programmes can be rolled out," said Abedian, adding ministers have to give specific information about the nature of every government department's projects.

- Fin24.com