3 responses to “Searching”

1. 

   Neville Berkowitz

   11 years Ago

   Sorry Guys but the unemployment figure is actually 6.849 million.If you look again at the Quarterly Labour Force Survey Q3 2013 and beneath the figure you quoted is a heading entitled ‘Discouraged Work Seekers’ put under “Not Economically Active” totalling 2.240 million people who have given up looking for work and are EXCLUDED from the unemployment numbers above.For years the Government figures have ignored these discouraged job seekers and simply not called them unemployed but discouraged!
   So with 6 849 million unemployed the unemployment statistics are 32.8% of the now enlarged workforce of 20 878 million not 24.7% of the 18 638 million which excludes the discouraged but unemployed work seekers.
   This means 1 out of every 3 work seekers are unemployed in South Africa.
   At GetTheJob.co.za we have a section called Job Creation where we outline a 10 Point Strategy to do something meaningful about bringing these unemployment numbers down mainly by stimulating entrepreneurship.These are all free services to encourage job creation in South Africa.

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2. 

   Claire

   11 years Ago

   Hi Neville,

   Thanks for your comment. According to the strict definition of unemployment there are 4.6 million unemployed people, if we look at the expanded definition of unemployment (includes discouraged job seekers) you are correct that the number of unemployed increases to 6.8 million. Currently in South Africa, the strict definition of unemployment is regarded as the official one.

   The question relating to the fact-a-day asks how long an unemployed person has been looking for work and by definition discouraged job seekers are not looking for work. Hence this question is only asked to those that are officially unemployed and not discouraged job seekers.

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3. 

   Neville Berkowitz

   11 years Ago

   Hi Claire,
   Thanks for the informative comment.While I understand the “Official line” let us rather agree that 6.8 million people who are/were willing to work go to sleep with empty bellies each night as do their dependents.The fact that 2 240 million don’t complain does not make their bellies any less empty!
   I respect you have to follow the “Official Line” in your reporting and really enjoy your daily emails.
   Best wishes
   Neville Berkowitz
   GetTheJob.co.za

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