Saftu: Unemployment shows economy not recovered from Covid
The South African Federation of Trade Unions has raised doubts about the latest unemployment stats, despite the figures showing a positive trajectory.
Stats SA said on Tuesday that 16 million people are still unemployed in the country.
This despite a slight decline of 0.2 of a percentage point to 32.7 percent between October and December last year.
The expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged job seekers who've given up looking for work, fell from 43.1 percent to 42.6 percent in the third quarter.
Job losses were recorded in the community, social services, agriculture and construction sectors.
Saftu's Trevor Shaku says it's clear that the economy hasn't yet recovered from the Covid pandemic.
"Although employment in private households have increased it is still dismal behind in terms of recovering the jobs from the fourth quarter of 2021.
"First affected by Covid-19 loss of income by many working class households the low levels of employment recovery in the private household sector are continually perforated by the rising cost of living due to rising inflation and interest rates.
"Overall the whole economy has not recovered 486 000 jobs from the fourth quarter of 2019."
