afrol News, - South Africa’s unemployment rate has remained unchanged, according to new figures released by Statistics South Africa yesterday.

The government bureau of statistics said while there is a slight improvement in terms of job creation from the last part of 2009, this did not however translate to a big decrease in the number of unemployed persons (27 000), but rather a slight increase in the number of discouraged work-seekers (54 000). “This resulted in the unemployment rate remaining virtually unchanged between Q3:2009 (24.5%) and Q4:2009 (24.3%),” Stats SA said.

The report further shows that the number of persons in the labour force increased slightly by 61 000 between the two last quarters of 2009.

Employment also increased significantly by 89 000 between Q3:2009 and Q4:2009 with the formal sector creating 41 000 jobs, the informal sector creating 116 000; while Agriculture and Private households lost 38 000 and 31 000 jobs respectively in the same period, Stats SA said.

The report also states that as compared to Q4:2008, there was an annual decrease of 6.3 percent (870 000) in employment; an increase of 292 000 in the number of unemployed persons and an increase of 947 000 in the number of persons who are not economically active, 518 000 being discouraged work-seekers.

The report points out that jobs were generated across all industries, with most of the job gains in Finance, which accounted for 77 000, followed by Construction (28 000) and Trade (21 000). “Job losses were experienced in Agriculture (38 000) and Private households (31 000). The year-on-year comparisons show that job losses were experienced in all industries except Finance and Utilities with Trade accounting for 291 000 of the job losses, followed by Manufacturing (202 000), Private households (163 000) and Agriculture (149 000). There were job gains in Finance (123 000) and Utilities (12 000) although there was an overall decline of 870 000 in employment between Q4:2008 and Q4:2009,” the report added.

It further went on that all industries had an increase in the number of informal sector jobs except Mining, Utilities and Trade where there was virtually no change between Q3:2009 and Q4:2009.

South African President, Jacob Zuma promised his government would help create about two million jobs from last year as part of the response to the global recession and fighting poverty.

While the country has been hit by a serious of violent uprising against poor service delivery, analysts have also said joblessness, affecting mainly the black populations was also a trigger for the violent protests.

By staff writer