South Africa bleeding jobs

Ok, so you know how I feel about that un-august body StatsSA in yesterday's post about the population guesstimate. Bloody useless. They've now also released some numbers on the jobs front and it's not good. Should we take these figures seriously? Maybe. Unlike determining population size, jobs is something perceptible, we can sense if there is some truth to it because we interact with the jobbed and jobless.

I wager the situation is far more dire than is being let on. Remember it was only a few months ago that then Finance Minister Manuel was telling us that South Africa had missed the global recession and/or was well placed to handle the coming financial tsunami. Well, was it, "well placed"?

I know people who've been in business for twenty years or more that say work has literally dried up and they're having to dig deep to keep head above water. They say it's never been so bad. The protests we see are also a symptom of these massive job losses. The so-called "growth" of the last 15 years used to demonstrate that blackie could do the job of managing Africa's largest economy just as well as whitey was actually a false economy, no jobs were created, no value was added, jobs and wealth were simply transferred from whites to blacks. Look at the decrease in the white population in yesterday's post.

It was smoke and mirror stuff, the world was on an up anyway and the ANC rode the illusion that it was "creating" a new black middle class. Meanwhile, one million skilled South Africans left the country and now you are left with a problem so severe I fear there is no way out simply because you lack enough human capital to fight your way out. So expect more civil unrest.

To contrast real value, take Australia for example. It is the only advanced economy that missed the global recession, shed the least amount of jobs, and is already on the way to recovery, the economy picking up good steam. Why is that? Oh yes, it is run by whites.

Related:
COSATU alarmed at jobs stats [then call off the strikes costing the country millions!!]

Tsunami about to hit South Africa

Financial Meltdown May Lead to Social Meltdown

***

Economy sheds close to half a million jobs over the past six months.

The South African economy shed a further 267,000 jobs between the first and second quarters of 2009. This is according to the recent Quarterly Labour Force Survey released by Statistics South Africa on Tuesday. The survey found that, in that period, 93,000 jobs had been lost in the formal sector, 41,000 in the informal sector, 28,000 in agriculture, and 105,000 from private households.

The unemployment rate increased only slightly - from 23,48% to 23,58%. This was because of a massive - 302,000 - increase in the number of discouraged job seekers.

Over the past two quarters the South African economy has shed close to half a million jobs (475,000.)

Table: Key findings of latest Labour Force Survey
	Jan-Mar 2008	April-June 2008	Oct-Dec 2008	Jan-Mar 2009	April-June 2009	Qrt to Qrt change	Year-on-year change
	Thousand
Population 15-64 yrs	30608	30705	30894	30987	31080	93	375
Labour force	17814	17844	17718	17820	17495	-325	-349
Employed	13623	13729	13844	13636	13369	-267	-360
Formal sector (Non-agricultural)	9342	9415	9537	9449	9356	-93	-59
Informal sector (Non-agricultural)	2319	2340	2246	2150	2109	-41	-231
Agriculture	799	790	764	738	710	-28	-80
Private households	1163	1185	1298	1299	1194	-105	9
Unemployed	4191	4114	3873	4184	4125	-59	11
Not economically active	12794	12861	13176	13166	13585	419	724
Discouraged work-seekers	1177	1079	1168	1215	1517	302	438
Other (not economically active)	11617	11783	12008	11951	12068	117	285
Unemployment rate	23.53%	23.06%	21.86%	23.48%	23.58%	0.10%	0.52%
Source: Statistics South Africa, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Quarter 2 2009