The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) says the country’s unemployment rate is alarming.
The labour federation was reacting to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, which shows the official unemployment rate has risen to 33.6%.
Data indicates that an additional 345 000 persons are unemployed.
Cosatu’s Parliamentary Co-ordinator Matthew Parks says these figures are more than just statistics and its only getting worse.
“It’s a crisis and I think for far too long, we’ve allowed ourselves to normalize it. We have a crisis of 43% unemployment. It’s been increasing continuously for much of the past decade. And in fact, it’s doubled since over the last 20 years. For young people, it’s even worse it’s over 62%.”
“So, you have 12 million people who just can’t find work. About five million of them are young people. This creates a real crisis for them. We’re in danger of creating a permanent class of unemployed persons,” adds Parks.
–SABC–
