Misplaced focus on public employment schemes perpetuates unemployment crisis.
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GUEST – Ann Bernstein, executive director of CDE.
South Africa has the deepest and most persistent unemployment crisis in the world. Despite this, government continues to avoid the essential reforms that would change the country’s trajectory. Instead, it continues to rely on piecemeal public employment initiatives such as the Presidential Employment Stimulus or the Expanded Public Works Programme that will never shift the needle on unemployment.
The time has come to start talking about what a labour absorbing economy looks like, and what it would take to get us there. This includes making difficult decisions about the rigidities that hobble the labour market, the failure of skills development programmes, and the many barriers in the way of small and informal businesses.
This is the central message of a new report by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE), South Africa’s Unemployment Catastrophe: A call for urgent action.
South Africa has the deepest and most persistent unemployment crisis in the world. Despite this, government continues to avoid the essential reforms that would change the country’s trajectory. Instead, it continues to rely on piecemeal public employment initiatives such as the Presidential Employment Stimulus or the Expanded Public Works Programme that will never shift the needle on unemployment.
The time has come to start talking about what a labour absorbing economy looks like, and what it would take to get us there. This includes making difficult decisions about the rigidities that hobble the labour market, the failure of skills development programmes, and the many barriers in the way of small and informal businesses.
This is the central message of a new report by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE), South Africa’s Unemployment Catastrophe: A call for urgent action.
