Unemployment is rising. New data that was released by Statistics South Africa on the 5th of May 2009. This data looks at the quarterly labour force survey and is basically a measure of employment. The key finding is that 280 000 people in South Africa lost their jobs between the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009. These are scary numbers. So what can you do about it?
280 000 people losing their jobs is big news and Fin24 carried comment by an economist that suggested that job losses could be even larger if GDP declined as that economist expects it to. The article looked at which classes of jobs are most vulnerable, and that 'elementary workers would be hardest hit while manufacturing, durable sales, mining and construction would feel the worst effects of the crisis'. Management and technical jobs are not expected to suffer as many job losses as other types of work.
Business Report noted that unemployment has risen from 21.9 percent to 23.5 percent in the period covered by the data. A further 9 percent of the labour force are discouraged workers who are no longer even looking for jobs. The job market is tough at the best of times and the article went on to interview a number of retrenched workers to see what it looks like from the other side of the job queue. The picture is not pretty and with the global downturn still dropping out the picture is not expected to look better any time soon.