Minister in The Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni has hailed the various initiatives that were implemented by government to create jobs when many people lost their livelihoods due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLSF), South Africa had 16.4 million people in employment in the first quarter of 2020.
‘We lost 2.3 million jobs in the second quarter of that year, down to 14.1 million jobs. Overall, the South African economy rescinded to 2008 levels. It was the government in partnership with business and labour that developed and implemented the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan that enabled us to get the current employment numbers even surpassed to the pre-COVID-19 levels,’ Ntshavheni said on Tuesday in Parliament.
Currently, the number of employed persons in South Africa is sitting at 16.7 million, an increase of 2.6 million jobs from the low of 14.1 million during COVID-19 and 16.4 million pre-COVID-19.
Tabling the Budget Vote for the Presidency, the Minister
said in the first quarter of 2024, nine of 11 industries showed higher employment levels than those recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘Notably, the finance industry has seen the most significant recovery, with 680 000 more jobs compared to the second quarter of 2020. The community and social services sector – which includes government – increased by 547 000, and the trade sector followed with 525 000 more individuals employed than during the pandemic levels, while the transport sector saw an increase of 177 000 employed.
‘Private households saw an increase of 173 000 jobs, followed by 150 000 in manufacturing and 149 000 in construction compared to the second quarter of 2020. In addition, agriculture saw an increase of 142 000 jobs, while mining experienced an increase of 81 000 employed individuals than during pandemic levels,’ the Minister said.
She said due to government’s commitment to the eradication of poverty, unemployment and poverty, President Cyril Ramaphosa developed the Presidential Employ
ment Stimulus, which is a special programme focused on coordinating government initiatives towards public and social employment creation.
‘The overall performance of this initiative from October 2020 until March 2024 continues to exceed set targets. The initiative created more than 2 million job opportunities with a total budget R42 billion. As the President highlighted, more than 84% of participants in the programme are youth and with 64% being women beneficiaries,’ the Minister said.
The largest programme under the Presidential Employment Initiative is the Basic Education Employment Initiative, commonly known as the Teacher Assistant programme, which to date has created over one million opportunities for young people to be placed as assistants in schools across the country.
This has become the largest youth employment programme in South Africa’s history and is serving as a teacher replacement pipeline.
‘The Social Employment Fund (SEF), another large-scale programme is aimed at supporting the social eco
nomy through the non-profit organisations and coordinated through the Industrial Development Corporation of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition.
‘The SEF supports the work of civil society organisations to create employment by building on the work they already do to enable community-driven solutions to local problems,’ the Minister said.
These include frail care, Early Childhood Development, combating gender-based violence, community safety, placemaking, river cleaning, and support for the creative industry, among others.
Since the start of the programme in April 2022, the SEF has created more than 167 000 job opportunities against a target of 100 000.
Other Presidential Employment Stimulus programmes include subsistence farmers support through the subsistence producer relief programme, a revitalised national youth service, public employment programmes for Metros, and placement support for university graduates.
‘Another important initiative is the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention,
known as PYEI. Appreciating the opportunity that technology provides to bridge access gaps and the rate at which the youth have adopted technology, the PYEI successfully established the SAYouth.mobi platform to create remote access to new opportunities for young people irrespective of their location,’ Ntshavheni said.
Through the SAYouth.mobi, job seekers can access the network to find job opportunities, to earn income, and to stay engaged and connected.
The platform provides young people with ongoing recommendations to learning and for support so that they know what they must do to grow their profile and access more opportunities.
‘Of the SAYouth.mobi platform registered users, more than 1.3 million earning opportunities were secured by young people since its inception. We will continue to work to ensure SAYouth.mobi becomes a platform of choice for young South Africans looking for opportunities.
‘The Presidency, together with development partners and other government departments, will continue to provid
e strategic oversight and coordination of the Presidential Employment Stimulus and the PYEI and other public employment initiatives,’ the Minister said.
Source: South African Government News Agency