IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

On 28 July 2020, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) published the Quarterly employment statistics (QES) survey results for the first quarter of 2020. According to the survey, the formal non-agricultural sector shed 3 000 jobs in the first quarter of 2020. This brings the total number of persons employed in the formal non-agricultural sector in South Africa to 10,2 million. The survey further shows that three of the eight industries (trade, construction and manufacturing) reported a decrease quarter-on-quarter, while the electricity industry reported no change.

On a more positive note, however, the government has declared war on unemployment and seeks to create jobs by doing the following: Reversing spatial apartheid by building more homes near big cities where the work is; by introducing a policy that ensures that graduates are hired without work experience, by introducing skills programmes for young people to make
them more employable; and by reducing the cost of data so that using the internet to apply for jobs can be cheaper, making the internet more accessible for the disenfranchised workers of South Africa.

Download Mbalo Brief July 2020