By BBC
South Africa jobseekers have taken to advertising their services on roadsides as the country’s unemployment rate rises to 29.1%, the highest in 11 years.
Carpenters, welders and plumbers among others are seen seated by roadsides with tags indicating the services they offer. The unemployment figures were announced in the capital, Pretoria, by the country’s Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the third quarter of 2019.
It increased by 0.1% from the previous quarter. In the last 10 years the unemployment rate increased by 4.6%. In the last five years the unemployment rate rose by 3.7% and in the past year, unemployment rose by 1.5%. The survey said 6.7 million people are unemployed and 15.5 million are not economically active.
The number of unemployed people increased by 78,000 over the past quarter, while those in employment grew by only 62,000 people. This will be a blow to President Cyril Ramaphosa whose election campaign was based around reviving the county’s sluggish economic growth.
