Picture: The North West Premier, Lazarus Mokgosi

By OBAKENG MAJE

13 November 2024- The North West Premier, Lazarus Mokgosi said the quarterly Labour Force Survey regarding job creation in the province is on a positive trajectory. Thus far, half of the population of North West province is unemployed. 

However, according to Statistics South Africa, the province has created 69 000 jobs in the third quarter of 2024.

Mokgosi said he has noted the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey Report by Statistics South Africa with optimism and as a signal that efforts for economic reforms and job creation are starting to pay off.

He further said the province has initiated various intervention measures such as the finalization of the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy, the appointment of the Economic and Investment Advisory Council, resuscitation of the Skills Development Forum, as well as the accelerated and expanded advertising of vacant posts in the public service.

“All these efforts are aimed at addressing the scourge of unemployment in the province. While this is a step in the right direction, more needs to be done. We welcome the recent statistics on Quarterly Labour Force Survey, however more than half of the population remains unemployed.

“Expanded unemployment in the North West remains stubbornly high at 51.5%. The province will host a Jobs Summit early next year to strengthen the government’s efforts for job creation. We have decided to call a jobs summit early next year with different stakeholders to see how best we can find solutions to challenges of unemployment in the province,” said Mokgosi. 

In preparation for this summit, he said they have lined up a series of meetings with industry leaders in Agriculture, Tourism and Mining. According to Mokgosi, it is through these efforts that they can be able to have consensus on how they deal with this challenge.

Meanwhile, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in the North West said it has noted with interest that the rate of unemployment has declined in the province, showing some indication that some jobs have been created over the past quarter.

COSATU provincial secretary, Kopano Konopi said this further provides some sign of improvement when looked at on a yearly basis. Konopi said this is the area which will demonstrate that there is still much work to be done for the provincial economy to absorb as many entrants to the labour market as possible.

“The official unemployment rate of the province declined by 4.5% in the past quarter and by 1.8% on a yearly basis. At the same time, official unemployment declined by 2.7% in the past quarter and by 0.3% on a year-on-year basis.

“While we note this improvement, the unemployment of the province still remains the highest if one looks at the expanded rate and the second highest at the official rate. The sectors which have grown the most are manufacturing, which grew by 26.2% on yearly basis but shrunk by 3.3% on quarterly basis,” he said.

Konopi said this was followed by agriculture which grew by 21.4% and no shrinkage. He said the third one is mining which grew by 10.2% and no shrinkage at all.

“While we can see based on the stats above that there is some increase in the number of people who have gained employment, this has not put a dent on the unemployment rate of the province.

We believe that for the unemployment to substantially decline, we need an employment growth rate of about 5% per quarter.

“It is then that we will see a real decline in the unemployment rate.

We believe that for the employment to grow we need a real policy shift in the economy of the province. We must also see commitment on investment on economic infrastructure to stimulate economic growth,” Konopi said.

He said while they are aware of the plans of the 7^th administration, they believe some of the commitments need to be sped up so that they can see real economic growth, which is able to absorb many unemployed people of the province.

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