THOUGHT LEADERSHIP JOB CREATION

PULSE THE INVEST IN JOB-CREATING INDUSTRIES

South African businesses need to be at the forefront of preparing unemployed youth for future work. By Onyi Nwaneri, CEO Afrikan Tikkun Services

Onyi Nwaneri

Millions of skilled and unskilled South Africans, including breadwinners and the youth, have re-entered the labour market over the last two years, with only those with in-demand skills managing to return to employment. According to the results recently released in Stats SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), 34.5 per cent of the country’s working-age citizens are unemployed. This includes more than half (65.5 per cent) of young people of working age, that is, aged 15–34. Years of decreasing employment opportunities have resulted in youths being denied the opportunity to better their lives.

In light of these developments, Afrika Tikkun Services, the division of Afrika Tikkun specialising in recruitment, training, placement and corporate transformation, has called for business and government to invest in job-creating industries by providing the skills workers need to enter and sustain their place in the labour force and the resources needed by small businesses to employ and upskill them.

The latest unemployment data also reveals that the era of low-skilled jobs making up the bulk of South Africa’s labour force is on its last legs. Industries that have shed the most jobs in the economic aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic have been those traditionally known to employ South Africa’s lowest skilled and, therefore, the most vulnerable people in the country.

WHAT IS NEEDED?

Changing global trends such as automation in various industries suggest that this trend is likely to continue its trajectory of fewer and fewer low-skill jobs available. According to the International Finance Corporation, 230 million jobs in sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills by 2030. At the same time, according to the Salesforce New Digital Skills Index, 76 per cent of global workers say they are ill-equipped for the future of labour.

The state desperately needs to save its shrinking tax base in the face of wide-scale job losses, businesses need to revamp their approach to work post-pandemic to compete on a global scale, and communities are languishing in unemployment and poverty. A massive and deliberate e ort to align youth skills development with the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) is the ultimate solution to all three of these mammoth challenges.

This is where industry players, large and small, have a vital role to play in upskilling those at risk of being left behind by technology and the 4IR and leading institutions of learning into a mass streamlining of the school-to-jobs pipeline to create longer, more fruitful careers for graduates.

The government has committed to investing in programmes that incentivise businesses to take on this task. As President Cyril Ramaphosa iterated in his State of the Nation Address, the government does not create jobs; businesses do. It is through partnerships between the government, industries and the NGO sector that the full potential of South Africa’s labour market can be used to stimulate the economy.

Other governments, including that of Australia, have recently announced incentives in the form of tax breaks for small businesses investing in technology and skills.

This is the kind of spirit we need to adopt in South Africa. We need to pour our resources into the areas with the highest potential returns, and at the moment, this largely includes the digital economy, manufacturing and agriculture. ▪

EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS

Stats SA’s recently released Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the rst quarter of 2022, reveals that the o cial unemployment rate declined from 35.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 34.5 per cent in the rst quarter of 2022. The number of unemployed people decreased by 60 000 to 7.9 million while 370 000 jobs were gained, bringing the employment rate to 14.9 million.

The most notable increases were in community and social services (up 8.6 per cent), manufacturing (up 20 per cent) and trade (up 3.4 per cent).

Jobs were cut in other sectors: private households (186 000), nance (72 000), construction (60 000).

The percentage of people who stopped looking for employment was down from 46.2 per cent in the last quarter of 2021 to 45.5 per cent.

Stats SA also reports that out of the 10.2 million people aged 15–24 years, some 3.8 million were not in employment, education or training (NEET). The overall NEET rate increased by 4.6 percentage points in the past year.