Business
development key to South Africa’s job growth
Pretoria, 31 July 2012 – Rapid
economic growth in South Africa must be accompanied by policies to boost job
creation and training opportunities, particularly among youths, according to a
report presented here today.
Co-written by the
African Development Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) Development Centre, the United Nations Economic Commission
for Africa (UNECA) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the report focuses
on youth as an opportunity for future economic
growth.
In 2011,
South Africa’s unemployment rate
still stood at 24.9 percent, up from 22.9 percent in 2008, on the eve of the
recession.
The same year, 42
percent of South Africans under the age of 30 were unemployed, as compared with
fewer than 17 percent of adults over 30. The report also found that unemployed
young people tended to be less skilled than in other emerging economies: almost
86 percent did not have formal secondary or tertiary education, while two-thirds
had never worked at all.
According to Mthuli Ncube, Chief Economist and Vice-President of the
African Development Bank (AfDB), “the continent is experiencing jobless growth”,
and “that is an unacceptable reality on a continent with such an impressive pool
of youth, talent and creativity”.
The South African
government has set out to create five million jobs by 2020.The
report recommends that the country further its efforts to reduce unemployment,
focusing on policies that create jobs in the private sector while providing the
right conditions for businesses of all sizes to grow and expand their work
force.
“The
private sector is Africa’s employer of tomorrow”, said Mario Pezzini, Director
of the OECD Development Centre. “In an economy traditionally dominated by large
firms, the key for South Africa is to support small and medium enterprises and
help them grow”, he added.
In
addition, the report finds that a government focus on the informal sector and
rural areas, which contain immense entrepreneurial talent, and on creating the
skills for youths to compete in the job market, in agriculture and new
technologies for example, can serve as engines for inclusive
growth.
“Young
people can be very important sources of innovation and growth, and enable Africa
to enjoy a major demographic dividend”, said Helen Clark, the Administrator of
UNDP.
Prof. Emmanuel
Nnadozie, ECA’s Chief Economist and Director of Economic Development and NEPAD
Division said, “Because growth does not always result in employment, especially
for young people, we need to adopt active labour-market and employment-friendly
macroeconomic policies to improve labour market conditions. Employment policies
must stimulate output in relatively high-productivity and high-wage sectors of
the economy in particular. ”
******
African Economic
Outlook:
The 2012
edition of the annual African Economic Outlook reviews and analyses the
development of the economic, social and political situation in 53 of the 54
countries on the continent. The report is
co-written by the African Development Bank, the OECD Development Centre, the
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the UN Development
Programme (UNDP). It
benefits from the financial support of the European Commission (EC) and the
Committee of Ambassadors of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States
(ACP Group). To consult the 2012 edition in its entirety, including statistics,
please consult the report website at www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/
.
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