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Unemployment: Ironic that agriculture comes to the rescue despite mounting pressure from government

It is ironic that the agricultural sector is one of the brightest stars in the slight improvement of South Africa’s labour market, despite government increasingly treating it like the black sheep.

The sector’s year-on-year contribution for the third quarter was more than 60 000 new job opportunities. This raises the question of how much better the sector would do without restrictive legislation, regulations and interference by government.

The sector should be allowed to regulate itself by means of agricultural organisations and farmers who possess the necessary expertise.

Although 362 000 more people in South Africa had jobs in the third quarter of this year than in the corresponding period in 2020, the unemployment rate has still increased by nearly 2%.

It is an alarming indication of the rapid rate at which South Africa’s population is growing and should be reckoned with other factors that contribute to extremely poor economic growth under an incompetent ANC government.

In 2020, 16 383 000 people had jobs and the unemployment rate stood at 30,1%, compared to last quarter’s 16 745 000 employed people and an unemployment rate of 31,9%.

Nevertheless, the positive news is that unemployment as well as expanded unemployment decreased for the second consecutive quarter and currently stand at 31,9% and 41,2%, respectively.

Year-on-year employment increased by 979 000 jobs or 6,2%.

Although the unemployment rate is still one of the highest in the world, the slight decrease should be welcomed. It seems that the detrimental impact of Covid-19 has mostly been mitigated.

The FF Plus will, however, remain cautiously optimistic about the slight improvement because it is difficult to see how actual growth can take place amid the paralysing effects of load shedding, poor service delivery and destructive ANC policy.

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